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Special Double-Issue 


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Don't miss our next exciting cover story on the filming of Marvel’s X- 
MEN, the summer’s most hotly anticipated science fiction blockbuster. Our 
exclusive report from the set in Toronto includes an interview with director 
Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS), Anna Paqum who plays Rogue, 
Hugh Jackman who plays Wolverine, and THE PHANTOM MENACE'S 
Ray Park who plays Toad. Plus producers Tom DiSanto and Ralph Winter, 
makeup specialist Gord Smith and a look at the fHm's Marvel Comics in¬ 
spiration and how the film measures up to the legend. 

Also in the same issue, our report from London of the filming of Dream¬ 
Works’ CHICKEN RUN. the stop-motion feature from the creators of Wal¬ 
lace and Gromit, animator Don Bluth and Gary Goldman on the making of 
SF epic TITAN A.E., director Paul Verhoeven and ‘invisible man” Kevin 
Bacon on THE HOLLOW MAN. plus ILM on ROCKY & BULLWINKLE. 

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BABYLON 5 spoken here! Welcome 
to our commemorative double-issue 
collector's edition on what we call "the 
greatest science fiction epic ever filmed!” 
If you’re a fan of the show, you need no 
convincing. If you’re among the 
uninitiated, you have a whole universe to 
discover, and we hope this issue prompts 
you to sample the episodes you may 
have missed in re-run on TNT 

We needed a double issue to fully 
chronicle the achievements of B5 
because this unique science fiction saga 
spans five years. 110 episodic hours and 
five TV movies, all pieces of an intricate, 
complex mosaic conceived in the mind of 
writer-producer J. Michael Straczynski, 
truly a science fiction visionary if there 
ever was one. Besides a complete 
episode guide to the series, annotated 
with the comments of the talented writers, 
producers, directors, cast and designers 
who made the show a dramatic high- 
watermark for the genre, the issue also 
offers a season by season guide to the 
behind-the-scenes saga of creating the 
show, plus a look at its amazing special 
effects. 

And with summer approaching, this 
issue also offers a preview of the riches 
Hollywood has to offer on the big screen, 
opening soon at a theatre near you! New 
York correspondent Dan Persons files his 
report from the set in Montreal on John 
Travolta's long-awaited movie adaptation 
of L. Ron Hubbard’s BATTLEFIELD 
EARTH, opening May 12. 

Dinosaurs are back in a big way. 
Disney opens its first CGI feature 
DINOSAUR May 19 and animation expert 
Mike Lyons takes a look this issue at the 
amazing technological advances at 
Digital Disney's Secret Lab. But opening 
first is Universal's THE FLINTSTONES IN 
VIVA ROCK VEGAS, jumping the 
summer gun on April 28. Fred Szebin 
provides a report on all the fun. which 
includes ILM CGI dinosaurs and Ann 
Margret singing the title song! 

Plus there are previews of big summer 
blockbusters like X-MEN. our next cover 
story, and director Paul Verhoeven’s 
HOLLOW MAN. an update of H.G. Wells. 

Frederick S. Clarke 





Page 8 


Page 14 


Page 18 



Page 118 


4 X-MEN: FILMING THE COMICS 

Fox shells out $75 million for director Bryan Singer to do the Marvel 
Comics superheroes right. I Article by Paul Wardle 

6 Chicken run 

Stop-motion animators Nick Park and Peter Lord on their high- 
concept feature film for DreamWorks. / Interview by Alan Jones 

8 Dinosaur 

Behind-the-scenes of Disney’s “Secret Lab" and their first all-digitally 
animated feature. /Articles by Mike Lyons 

12 PAULVERHEOVEN’S “HOLLOW MAN” 

The director of ROBOCOP on updating H.G. Wells' “The Invisible 
Man" with star Kevin Bacon. / Preview by Douglas Eby 

14 Adventures of rocky & bullwinkle 

The Moose from Frostbite Falls gets candid on the set about his co- 
star and producer Robert J. DeNiro. / Preview by Joe Fordham 

16 Titan a.e. 

Animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman on targeting the teen market 
with their SF adventure cartoon feature. / Preview by Mike Lyons 

18 Battlefield earth 

Producer and star John Travolta and director Roger Christian on 
adapting L. Ron Hubbard's SF epic. /Articles by Dan Persons 

28 The flintstones in viva rock vegas 

Director Brian Levant on continuing the live action features based on 
the 60s cartoon series. / Articles by Frederick C. Szebin 

32 The making of “Babylon 5” 

Behind-the-scenes of television’s SF epic with five-year episode guide 
and cast profiles. / Articles by Robert Garcia & Frank Garcia 

39 Bruce boxleitner on captain sheridan 

The actor who played TRON on anchoring the B5 ensemble to 
complete the SF saga's grand design, / Interview by Robert Garcia 

64 B5 CGI: A TELEVISION EFFECTS LANDMARK 

Foundation Imaging effects supervisor Ron Thornton on ushering in a 
new era of visual effects for TV. / Article by Frank & Robert Garcia 

118 Fantasia 2000 

Interviews with the creative artists behind Disney's new animation 
big-screen IMAX milestone, plus a review. /Articles by Mike Lyons 

126 Scream 3 

A look at why the sequel elicits few screams from an audience that 
prefers to react with sly cackles. / Review by Thomas Doherty 


Publisher & Kditor: Frederick S, Clarke. Bureaus: New York, Dan Persons, Dan ScuppcroUi. Ia»h Angles Milch Persons, Douglas Lhy. London Alan JoncN 
Contributor's: Thomas Doherty, Joe PardhiifiK Frank Garcia, Rttbcrt Garcia. Mike Lyons, Frederick t\ Szebin, Paul Wardle, 

Editorial Operations Manager: Lisa Tomc/ak-Walkings in. Editorial Production: Lisa Coduto, Robert Garcia. 

Publisher's.YvsLstanl ( ireulathm; Faith Redding, Business Manager Celeste Casey Clarke. 


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Director Bryan Singer makes 
Marvel’s mutants movie stars 


By Paul Wardle 

Ever since the phenome¬ 
nal success of the SUPER¬ 
MAN and BATMAN mov¬ 
ies, comic hook adaptations 
have flooded the screen. 
Most of these have been a 
disappointment to fans of the 
books, and the vast majority 
have featured super-powered 
characters. For some reason, 
these characters, a staple of 
comic book reading since 
the late 1930s, are difficult 
to translate to the screen. 
When BATMAN was re¬ 
leased in 1989, it jump-start¬ 
ed the comic book industry 
the way nothing else had 
since the 1960s. Ironically, 
the number one comic book 
company at that time was 
not DC, who published 
BATMAN but Marvel 
Comics, now Marvel Enter¬ 
tainment. Yet none of Mar¬ 
vel’s popular superheroes has 
ever been able to generate a 
successful film adaptation. 

The failure of Marvel’s 
characters on the big screen 
has nothing to do with flaws in 
the original character concepts, 
but in the way they’ve been 
handled. One major problem is 
money. Superhero movies re¬ 
quire dazzling special effects 
to make the heroes fly convinc¬ 
ingly, blow things up. and even 
metamorphosize into other 
creatures. All past TV and film 
adaptations of Marvel comics 
have looked cheap, and often 
changed key elements that 
made the original comics so in¬ 
triguing for generations of 
fans. 

The makers of the new X- 
MEN film from 20th Ccntury- 

4 


MA ^ W 



Ian McKellen, star of Singer s APT PUPIL, 
plays Magneto, the leader of the foes of 
humanity, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. 


Fox have got that dilemma tak¬ 
en care of. A $75 million budget 
has been granted the project, in¬ 
cluding the biggest media blitz 
Marvel has ever been afforded. 
Though the next issue of Cine- 
fantastique will feature in-depth 
coverage of the movie, and in¬ 
terviews with several cast mem¬ 
bers, director Bryan Singer and 
others, for now let’s set the 
stage for what’s to follow. 

The shooting has been 
cloaked in secrecy from the 
start. No press were allowed on 
the set until late January, though 
the shooting had commenced in 
late September 1999. In all, the 
shooting, which wrapped up on 
February Nth. took 91 days, 
and is reportedly the biggest 
budget movie ever to be shot in 
and around Toronto. 


It’s a relatively mild winter 
for Toronto this year, and a 
large portion of the filming 
was done out doors. The al¬ 
leyway behind an aban¬ 
doned distillery served as a 
setting for a concentration 
camp sequence, of which 
we are permitted to know 
nothing. Inside the old 
building, littered with hun¬ 
dred-year-old barrels, and 
sporting a sign that reminds 
you that the distillery was 
providing service since 
1832, interior sequences are 
shot. 

Despite the ban on infor¬ 
mation, leaks have occurred 
to vex the executives at Fox, 
One sequence involving a he¬ 
licopter turned up on the lo¬ 
cal news broadcast only two 
hours later, and photocopied 
storyboard sequences were 
stolen and ended up on E-bay, 
for sale by auction. They 
were pulled off and the culprits 
caught, but again. Fox won’t 
discuss it. 

So here is what we do know 
about the film. It fuses together 
several different time periods 
in the 36 year history of The X- 
Men comic series. The original 
concept, as released in the 
team’s first issue in 1963, cen¬ 
tered around a school for mu¬ 
tants, gifted, but by main¬ 
stream standards freakish, 
teenagers. The threat of atomic 
mutation after World War II 
was still on many people’s 
minds, and thalidomide babies 
had shown what birth defects 
could occur if man meddled in 
nature. 

Professor Charles Xavier 
was a wheelchair bound men¬ 
tor whose wealth was exceed- 



ed-only by his brain power. He 
taught the five original X-Men 
how to use their abilities, and 
to fight the evil mutants that 
wanted to enslave mankind. 
The X-Men were hated by the 
general public as much as the 
evil mutants they fought, be¬ 
cause of prejudice. The comic 
was originally a creation of 
Stan Lee and jack Kirby, but 
throughout the I960's, several 
other writers and artists han¬ 
dled the feature. 

In 1975, the X-Men were 
revamped into a completely 
new, international group, and 
for the next 15 years, attained 
their greatest popularity, even 
exceeding Marvel stalwarts 
like Spidcrman and The Fan¬ 
tastic Four. It is primarily 
members of this later group 
that form the crux of THE X- 
MEN movie. Patrick Stewart 
will play Professor Xavier, or 
Professor X, as he is often 
called. The X-Men not only 
get their name from him. but 
also from their X-tra abilities. 
This, according to original 
writer/editor Stan Lee was an 
afterthought, and came about 
because of his publisher's trep¬ 
idation of using the word "mu¬ 
tant” on the cover. 

Helping to teach the new 
students arc Scott Summers 
(Cyclops) and Jean Grey, who 
in the comics was know n as 
Marvel Girl, then Phoenix in 
the late 197t)’s. Here, she will 
be played by a beautiful Dutch 























Singer filmlcaily contemplates Magneto's helmet. The director of APT PUPIL 
and THE USUAL SUSPECTS, his $75 million take on Marvel superheroes 
opens July 14 from 20th Century-Fox, the studio's bid for a franchise. 


actress, Famke Janssen. Jean 
Grey’s powers were not as 
powerful as Professor Xavier’s 
at first, but she could move 
heavy objects and people with 
her mind, Cyclops power was 
both a blessing and a curse. 
Forced to wear a visor at all 
times, Cyclops could destroy 
practically anything with the 
red beam that comes out of his 
eyes, in the film, his character 
is portrayed by Jimmy Mars- 
den. 

Among the newer members 
of the school, who join up over 
the course of the movie, is 
Storm, (played by the ravishing 
Halle Berry ) a storm goddess 
from Kenya who controls the 
elements. A younger student is 
Rogue, played by Anna Paquin, 
who won an oscar for her role in 
THE PIANO. Rogue can suck 
the life force out of any being, 
and therefore is unable to touch 
anyone, except as a weapon. 
She can also absorb the powers 
of other super-powered mu¬ 
tants. 

Of the many villains the X- 
Mcn have faced, only a few 
were chosen to comprise the 
film version of The Brother¬ 
hood Of Evil Mutants, a group 
that represents the opposition to 
Xavier’s project. While Xavier 
and his team try to circumvent 
the public’s hostility towards 
mutantkind with tolerance and 
education, the Brotherhood 
wants to wipe out humans, see¬ 
ing themselves, for all their 


flaws, as vastly superior. 

The leader of this evil force 
is the malevolent Magneto, 
master of Magnetism. Played 
by Ian McKellan, who starred 
in director Bryan Singer’s pre¬ 
vious film, APT PUPIL. Mag¬ 
neto is not to be trifled with, 
and his partners in crime pos¬ 
sess the skills to give the X- 
Men a run for their money. The 
sychophantic Toad, is played 
by Ray Park, who was rocketed 
to stardom after his appearance 
in THE PHANTOM MEN¬ 
ACE. Sabertooth, an animalis¬ 
tic powerhouse, is played by 
ex-wrestler Tyler Mane. For 
those of you who are not pro¬ 
fessional wrestling fans. Tvler 
is 6’10” and weighs 270 
pounds, with not a hint of fat on 
his body. Mane is a nice guy in 
real life, but an imposing figure 
as he ducks to come in a door. 
As Sabertooth, he wears lifts 
that bring him to a height of 
7’5”. Rounding out the cast of 
evil mutants is Mystique, 
played by the beautiful Rebec¬ 
ca Romijn-Stamos. Definitely 
the prime sex symbol of the 
cast (though Berry and Janssen 
are both gorgeous), Mystique, 
is a shape-changer whose nat¬ 
ural skin color is a dark bluish 
grey. 

Hovering somewhere be¬ 
tween these two camps is Lo¬ 
gan, better known to comic fans 
as Wolverine. Played by Aus¬ 
tralian actor Hugh Jackman. 
Logan is expected to be the 


GETTING MARVEL RIGHT 

‘‘The failure up to now of Marvel’s comic book 
characters on the big screen has nothing to do 
with flaws in the original character concepts, 
but the way they've been handled filmically.” 


most popular character in (he 
movie. Though he is definitely 
leaning towards the X-Men by 
the second half of the story, 
Wolverine is a loner who does¬ 
n't want to join either group. 
Created in 1974, Wolverine 
was added to the X-Mcn line¬ 
up a year later, and quickly be¬ 
came one of Marvel’s biggest 
stars, a distinction that contin¬ 
ues to the present day. Jackman 
has achieved the look and the 
intensity needed to play this 
Canadian anti-hero, whose 
anger has made him a border¬ 
line psychotic who would just 
as soon slash your face with his 
admantium claws as look at 
you. In real life, Jackman is 
friendly and easy going, and he 
will be among those who will 
be interviewed in our next is¬ 
sue. 

About the story, 1 am forbid¬ 
den to reveal anything at this 
time, but as you may have 
guessed there will be an epic 
clash between the good and evil 
mutants. Also in the plot are po¬ 
litical forces that want to hinder 
Xavier’s plans and perhaps de¬ 
stroy ail the mutants on Earth. 
Heading up this faction will be 
Senator Robert Kelly, whose 
paranoia about mutants will ri¬ 
val Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 
red scare about communism in 
the 1950’s, He will be played by 
actor Bruce Davison, whose 
lengthy list of credits include 
(he horror cult classic 
WILLARD. 

A climactic battle scene on 
New York’s Statue Of Liberty 
will reportedly rival that of 
Hitchcock’s SABOTEUR for 
action and suspense. In addition 
there will be scenes showing the 
mutants in classrooms, testing 
out their powers and getting to 
the essence of who they are and 
why they were given these gifts, 
all with the help and guidance 
of the benevolent Xavier. 

Will a new big budget super¬ 
hero movie like this revive the 
flagging comic book industry. 


of which super-hero books are 
an increasingly smaller part? 
We’ll have to wait and see. X- 
Men fans have been fantasizing 
about what a movie might be 
able to do with these characters 
for decades. Some may be dis- 
appointed with certain ele¬ 
ments, changes, groupings of 
characters or casting decisions, 
but they will also know that this 
is probably the closest they 
have come to date to seeing the 
X-Men realized on the silver 
screen. 

Beneath the effects and ac¬ 
tion is a subtext that producer 
Ralph Winter called “a conflict 
of values.” These arc characters 
“with enormous powers and yet 
enormous deficiencies.” Their 
outsider status and unconven¬ 
tional childhood has given them 
a unique perspective, but filled 
them with resentments and inse¬ 
curities about the outside world. 
And that is something that any 
teenager can relate to, whether 
or not they have X-tra talents. 
The isolation that comes with 
being different. X-MEN. Com¬ 
ing in July. □ 


The Marvel comic book featuring 
Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, 
and Rogue, played by Anna Paquin. 



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By Alan Jones 


From the day in 1990 when 
Nick Park won the first of his 
three Academy Awards for 
CREATURE COMFORTS, a 
Plasticine stop-motion anima¬ 
tion short with zoo animals talk- 
ing about their lives, people 
wondered when the Bristol- 
based Aardman Animations 
would make their first feature- 
length film. The Oscar-winning 
success of Park’s next two 
shorts, WRONG TROUSERS 
(1993) and A CLOSE SHAVE 
(1995), featuring the cheese- 
loving Wallace and his world- 
weary canine companion Grom¬ 
it increased that speculation. 

But it wasn’t until Park, with 
Aardman co-founder Peter 
Lord, who also earned two Os¬ 
car nominations for his shorts 
ADAM and WATS PIG, joined 
forces with DreamWorks SKG 
in a $250 million deal, that a 
full-length feature became a 
hard-and-fast reality. Park said, 

“Jeffrey Katzenberg was a huge 
fan of our work and when he 
was the head of Disney he ap¬ 
proached us with the idea of 
making a feature. But it didn 't 
seem possible for such a tiny 
company, as ours was in 1995. So when Jef¬ 
frey went to DreamWorks he asked us 
again, and as they were starting out and did¬ 
n’t have a whole history behind them like 
Disney did, we signed a five picture deal 
with them." 

Peter Lord added, “We refused to sign 
for ages with anyone because we were sus¬ 
picious of Hollywood, in truth. Dream¬ 
Works convinced us because they were very 
enthusiastic, didn’t mind that our first fea¬ 
ture wouldn’t be a musical and promised 
they would be very hands-off. That was re¬ 
ally important to us, the fact they would be 
very respectful of what we did. From other 
interested parties we always picked up sig¬ 
nals (hat they wanted a proper Hollywood 
movie from us. Well, we couldn’t do that as 
we have our own way of working and our 
own British-based sensibilities. Dream¬ 
Works wanted us to do what we wanted and 



Puppet animators 
Nick Park and Peter 
Lord go Hollywood. 



Director Peter Lord and key animator Merlin Crossingham set up a puppet tor 
aerial brace work on the set of chicken coop stalag 18, Britsih comic lunacy. 


that's why we chose them to be in partner¬ 
ship with.” 

Although launching their deal with a 
Wallace and Gromit feature was discussed. 
Park decided against that idea because “We 
had made three half-hour shorts already (in¬ 
cluding A GRAND DAY OUT in 1989) and 
it seemed such a complete number and a 
good time to leave them alone for a while. 
Also I felt our first feature should be some¬ 
thing more of an artistic collaboration be¬ 
tween Peter and I, as Wallace and Gromit 
were always seen as very much my thing.” 

Wallace and Gromit fans need never fear 
though as Number three in their five-picture 
deal will indeed showcase those much- 
loved characters. The idea for CHICKEN 
RUN grew out of a doodle Park had drawn 
in one of his notebooks depicting a chicken 
digging under a wire-fence with a spoon. 
Noted Park, “Then I had this one-line idea: 


THE GREAT ESCAPE with 
chickens! That was what we 
pitched to DreamWorks and we 
couldn’t have hit a better note 
as co-founder Steven Spielberg 
said, ‘I have 3(H) chickens at my 
home and THE GREAT ES¬ 
CAPE is my favorite film ever.’ 
So that was that. Those Prisoner 
of War escape pictures like 
STALAG 17 arc a nice mixture 
of exciting adventure, comedy 
romp and riveting drama and 
chickens are so utterly absurd 
and un-heroic (hat the chem¬ 
istry between the two extremes 
seemed perfect.” 

Written by Jack Rosenthal 
and Karcy Kirkpatrick (who 
scripted JAMES AND THE GI¬ 
ANT PEACH), CHICKEN 
RUN is set in a grim North 
Yorkshire farm in the early 
fifties run by the evil Mrs. 
Tweedy and her hen-pecked 
husband and tells the story of a 
group of chickens, led by hero¬ 
ine Ginger, determined to break 
free from (heir monotonous 
egg-laying routine. But every 
ingenious break ends in disaster 
and solitary confinement for 
Ginger, until all-American 
rooster Rocky crash-lands in 
the farm and who, in return for 
shelter and being hidden from the authori¬ 
ties, teaches them how to fly from the coop. 
However, even as the hen-house inmates at¬ 
tempt to learn the impossible, the egg-count 
goes down and the Tweedys invest in a 
chicken pic-making machine with the intent 
of making Ginger their first baking experi¬ 
ment. And with time running out, the chick¬ 
ens launch their most daring and spectacu¬ 
lar race for freedom. 

With the vocal talents of Mel Gibson, 
Miranda Richardson (SLEEPY HOLLOW), 
Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks (both from 
the sit com ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS), 
Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Phil 
Daniels, CHICKEN RUN began shooting 
in October 1998 after an intensive two-year 
development period at the Aardman studios 
situated in Bristol’s Aztec Park business fa¬ 
cility. Lord said, “The story always had an 
outsider in it and when we met with Mel 


6 









CfiThe ideal stop-motion 
puppet has big, fat legs & 
feet and a small body. A 
chicken has spindly legs, 
a big round body, beak & 
pointy head. A nightmare. 5 5 

-Co-creator Peter Lord — 


CHICKEN RUN was going to be two-and-a- 
hatf times longer than a Wallace and Gromit 
short that making the feature would be two- 
and-a-half times as difficult. In fact, every 
problem was magnified at least 30 times be¬ 
cause we had a lot more shots per minute and 
lots more texture in the story. There have 
been more plates to keep spinning in the air 
than ever. It hasn't helped, of course, that we 
chose the singularly most un-animator 
friendly creatures imaginable as the heroes 
of our first feature. The ideal stop-motion 


Park and Lord found the creative freedom for their mad Idea—a remake of THE GREAT 
ESCAPE, with chickens—at DreamWorks. Right: Tunneling Into theatres nationwide June 23. 


Gibson, who was a big admirer of our work, 
the character of Rocky fell into place. Mak¬ 
ing him American opened up a whole new 
story area we hadn’t contemplated and took 
on the whole culture clash feeling of what 
actually happened when GI's turned up in 
Britain during World War II and made a big 
impact on the female population. He also 
gave us another language to play with as we 
could contrast this wise-cracking Yank with 
the very English demureness of the rest of 
the hen-house. We loved Mel in MAVER¬ 
ICK and saw Rocky very much in those 
character terms." 

To meet the American opening date of 
June 23, 2000, the CHICKEN RUN shoot¬ 
ing routine has been well regimented by 
Park and Lord. On a daily basis they over¬ 
see 30 separate units using the talents of 32 
specially trained animators who first act out 
the scene in question themselves, use their 
movements to animate a video test which 
the co-directors then approve before it’s fi¬ 
nally committed to film. It takes ten days to 
film 17 seconds of CHICKEN RUN with 
the final running time hovering between 80 


and 85 minutes.Park remarked, “We have 
been consistently rewriting the script as 
we've gone along and we are still doing so 
three months before our release date. But 
when we see the opportunity for more hu¬ 
mor or drama we have to incorporate it. Pe¬ 
ter and I had our favorite sequences we 
wanted to direct more than simply alternate 
shots. It’s worked out that I’ve done all the 
chicken-related footage while Peter has 
tackled the Twccdys and the comic-relief 
rat duo of Nick and Fetcher, From Day One 
I insisted on doing the pie-making machine 
because I saw it in the grand adventure tra¬ 
dition of INDIANA JONES with the chick¬ 
ens having to avoid all the dangerous blades 
and grinders. I'm glad I did too as it has 
been such a relief to get out of the chicken 
farm! The major difference for me is that I 
haven’t done any of the animating myself. I 
miss it and CHICKEN RUN has been an 
enormous learning curve in expecting other 
people to do something exactly the way you 
want.” 

Lord added. “It’s funny, but we distinctly 
remember thinking early on that because 


puppet has big fat legs and feet and a small 
body. A chicken has spindly legs, awkward 
little toad feet, a big round body, a beak, a 
pointy head and feathers. A nightmare! Our 
chicken design was a major deal initially and 
the look took six months to evolve.” 

No such problems will hopefully occur 
on the second of the Aardman features for 
Dreamworks. It’s a new telling of the Aesop 
fable THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE. 
Park revealed, “Disney and other interested 
parties always expected us to choose an ex¬ 
isting tale for our first feature entry but we 
wanted a custom-made one instead. Now 
we’re ready to take a classic and find our 
own potential in it. The script is currently 
being written [by Karcy Kilpatrick and 
Mark Burton) and the puppets are already 
being made. Peter and I aren't intimately in¬ 
volved in that as we'd be creatively exhaust¬ 
ed. Once that starts going it will be like an 
express train and it will be impossible for us 
to get up to speed on it. So, after CHICKEN 
RUN is completed, and we’ve taken a long 
rest, we’ll begin pre-production on the Wal¬ 
lace and Gromit feature.” 












C A_R TOO N_V S. CGI _E AI L S_ M 



Disney’s computer animation stunner, but 
will audiences buy talking dinosaurs? 



By Mike Lyons 

‘'No dinosaurs were harmed 
in the making of this movie.” 
joked Baker Bloodworth, co¬ 
producer of Disney's DI¬ 
NOSAUR (set to he released 
May 19th). Indeed they 
weren’t, but after audiences see 
the film, the studio is hoping 
that (he end results will be real 
enough to make you question 
the ASPCA’s involvement in 
the production. 

“These dinosaurs are our ac¬ 
tors,” added the film's producer 
Pam Marsden. "They’re not just 
effects in the film, they’re not 
screaming, charging dinosaurs, 
in the way that we usually think 
of them. These are dinosaurs 
with personalities, emotions 
and motivations.” 

Disney's highly anticipated computer 
animated feature, the studio's first, 
opens In theatres nationwide May 19. 


In what they’re hoping will 
be a landmark to hang alongside 
TOY STORY, WHO FRAMED 
ROGER RABBIT and even 
SNOW WHITE, the Walt Dis¬ 
ney Studio has invested a lot of 
time, and especially a lot of 
technology, to bring the film, 
and its stars, to life. 

Through a combination of 
computer-generated imagery 
(CGI) and digitally enhanced 
live-action backgrounds, DI¬ 
NOSAUR tells an extremely 
naturalistic, BAMBl-esque tale 
of a group of dinosaurs search¬ 
ing for safety in an ever-chang¬ 
ing world. 

“Dinosaurs have been mon¬ 
sters in a lot of live-action 
films,” said Ralph Zondag, who 
codirects DINOSAUR with Er¬ 
ic Leighton. “In this film, we 
sec that there’s more to them.” 
“This film is entirely set during 
the Cretaceous times.” added 
Leighton. “Unlike JURASSIC 


PARK, which had about 60 
scenes with dinosaurs, we’ve 
got somewhere between 1,400 
to 1,500 scenes." 

DINOSAUR opens by intro¬ 
ducing audiences to the prehis¬ 
toric world through a five- 
minute sequence, devoid of dia¬ 
logue (shown as an "extended 
trailer” with TOY STORY 2, 
last year). 

The scene shows an egg, 
separated from its mother, 
landing on an island, inhabited 
by lemur monkeys. Aladar is 
the name of the young Igua- 
nadon dinosaur, who hatches 
from the egg and is raised by a 
family of lemurs, Plio, Yar, 
Suri and Zini. 

Meteors then devastate the 
island, causing Aladar and the 
lemurs to flee and join a group 
of misfit dinosaurs, led by the 
stubborn Kron, who are all try¬ 
ing to find their way to the safe¬ 
ty of the valley and their nesting 


grounds. 

Along the way, there are 
obstacles in the form of rock- 
slides, raptors and Carnotaurs 
(a fictitious dinosaur beast 
that Disney has already been 
featuring in the “Countdown 
to Extinction” attraction at 
their Animal Kingdom theme 
park). 

Like many of the studio’s an¬ 
imated features, DINOSAUR 
has traveled a long road to 
make it to the screen. Originally 
slated to be brought to life, 
many years ago, through stop- 
motion, DINOSAUR first in¬ 
volved visual effects maestro 
Phil Tippett and that captain of 
carnage, director Paul Ver- 
hoven. “That version would 
have been a lot more violent,” 
laughed co-director Leighton. 

When that version never 
panned out, Disney turned to¬ 
ward the ever-expanding uni¬ 
verse of computer animation, 
combining the digital characters 
with miniature sets. This idea 
was then scrapped, in favor of 
live-action backgrounds, in or¬ 
der to give the film a sense of 
heightened reality. 

The filmmakers also toyed 
with the notion of having the 
characters speak only in 
voice over (a la the studio’s 
live-action hit HOMEWARD 
BOUND). “That just wasn’t 
emotional or engaging enough 
for these majestic animals,” re¬ 
membered co-producer Blood- 
worth. The dinosaurs in the fi¬ 
nal version now speak. 

Once everything was secure¬ 
ly in place, production, unlike 
any other, began. Essentially 
making two films, and combin- 



8 























JURASSIC PARK featured about 60 effects scenes, but DINOSAUR depicts the behomoths In close to 1500 scenes of National Geographic splendor. 


ing them into one, live-action 
footage of landscapes was 
merged, in the computer, with 
the CGI dinosaurs 

“We had to make it familiar 
to the viewer,” said DI¬ 
NOSAURS art director, Cristy 
Maltese. “We couldn't move 
color around to the point that 
images w r ould be unrecogniz¬ 
able.” For help in creating the 
vast, wide-open spaces in DI¬ 
NOSAUR, Maltese turned to 
the work of landscape artist 
Frederick Church for inspira¬ 
tion. “There’s a translucent 
quality that Church had," noted 
Maltese, “what we kind of think 
of as prehistoric.” 

Since day one of produc¬ 
tion, DINOSAUR was also set 
to be the studio’s most realistic 
animated feature. No “Hakuna 
Matata" showstoppers, these 
characters and their environ¬ 
ments were going to be straight 
out of National Geographic. 
“That set a different set of 
boundaries,” said Maltese, 
while co-producer Marsden 
added, “The nature of the story 
takes away a lot of common an¬ 
imation acting crutches." 

For the animators, this meant 
the biggest challenge. DI¬ 
NOSAUR was not going to al¬ 
low for any of the “squash and 


stretch” freedom that usually 
accompanies the craft. These 
characters have to deliver a per¬ 
formance while remaining real¬ 
istic. 

“I couldn’t use my usual 
tools,” said Eamonn Butler, su¬ 
pervising animator for Kron. 
“When these characters talk and 
react, I couldn't use their body 
in a way that 1 could for a more 
humanized animal. We had to 
find ways to keep the creatures 


looking real and still communi¬ 
cate realistic and believable 
emotions and changes in their 
demeanor. It all had to be done 
in a way where you wouldn't 
question whether or not they 
were real dinosaurs.” 

Mike Belzer, who super¬ 
vised the animation of two 
characters, Baylene, a giant 
Brachiosaurus and Url. an 
Anklysaur, added, “We had to 
give the characters realism and 


-P 

a certain amount of weight that 
you need to sell the belicvabili- 
ty of the character and yet still 
provide the entertainment for 
the film.” 

In fact, the challenge began 
even before production did. For 
the studio’s other naturalistic 
films, most notably BAMBI 
and THE LION KING, the 
artists were able to actually ob¬ 
serve the animals they would be 
bringing to life. Thanks to evo- 












The complex dinosaur effects are combined with actual location photography, 
groundbreaking work by Disney's new CGI unit dubbed “The Secret Lab." 


right is Baylenc and Della 
Reese is Eema the Slyra- 
chosaur. As Kron. the leader, is 
Samuel E. Wright, most famous 
for his vocal performance as 
Sebastian the crab in THE LIT¬ 
TLE MERMAID and for his 
performance as Mufasa in the 
Broadway production of THE 
LION KINO, 

“He has this great stage pres¬ 
ence and this great ability to 
project." said animator Butler 
of Wright. “He’s also got great 
control over the sounds and the 
way he creates sounds. We 
asked all of our actors to create 
animal sounds, while we were 
recording the dialogue. He was 
doing a lot of roaring and shout¬ 
ing. We were getting worried 
that he might get hoarse, or 
loose his voice. He kept saying 
he was fine. It turns out he has 
this trick that he does, where he 
could vibrate the back of his 
palette and doesn't use his voice 
box at all. All of that came from 
his stage training." While all of 
the actors added to their digital 
counterparts, many involved 
cite noted British actress Joan 
Plowright, as the major force in 
bringing heart to the mammoth 
brachiosaur, Baylenc. “As an 
animator, you always dream of 
working with a voice that has a 
little bit of character,” said Bay- 
lene’s supervising animator, 


Kron, the stubborn loader of the dinosaur misfits is voiced by Samuei E. Wright, 
who did the voice of Sebastian the Crab in Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID. 


Mike Belzcr. "Joan was all 
about that. There was just so 
much color in her voice.” 

“We had been trying to cast 
this KMI-ton character for a long 
time," added co-director Leigh¬ 
ton. “It went through a lot of 
phases. Once we put Joan’s 
voice to the character, it just 
came alive," 

The cast in DINOSAUR is 
not your typical one and (he 
technology that brought them to 
life is indeed revolutionary. 
Equally groundbreaking for the 
medium of animation is the sto¬ 
ry the film tells. 

“A photo-realistic dinosaur 
certainly has power to it,” said 
Leighton. "We wanted the story 
to match that as much as possi¬ 
ble. We wanted a feeling of re¬ 
ality, of trueness, to the story. 
It's certainly grittier than any¬ 
thing feature animation has put 
out before." 

DINOSAUR doesn’t even 
contain that familiar of all Dis¬ 
ney animated archetypes, the 
clear-cut villain. "Initially, 
when I started on the picture, 
Kron was the obvious villain,” 
noted Butler. "As we got into 
the story, he became more of an 
obstacle character and more 
complex. He’s not totally evil, 
he believes that what he’s doing 
is for the best of the herd. 1 
think the Carnotaurs and the en¬ 
vironment that the creatures 
find themselves in is more of 
a villain.” 

“Kron isn’t really the vil¬ 
lain," added Marsdcn, “he’s 
just the leader of a herd, who 
can’t adjust to the changes 
that the meteor wrought. He's 
very much a soloist. Aladar 
comes in with the idea that as 
a community they can be 
safe. In a away, Kron is pret¬ 
ty sympathetic. He’s just do¬ 
ing things the way that he’s 
always done them.” 

“Adapting, understanding 
that things can change and 
that you can get through it, as 
long as you're open to it, is 


lution, the DINOSAUR crew 
had no such luck. “We all want¬ 
ed to take a ‘wayback machine’ 
for our pre-production trip,” 
laughed Maltese. “Instead, we 
looked at a lot of books and 
look trips to museums." 

“Many large animals, such 
as elephants, were used (for re¬ 
search], because of their sheer 
weight, size and scale,” said 
Blood worth. “We were able to 
reference their movements in 
terms of how a I (Mon character 
would walk, stretch and essen¬ 
tially move. That was very sig¬ 
nificant.” 

Not only did the artists ob¬ 
serve elephants, but one was ac- 
tually brought to the studio, 
where the artists and filmmak¬ 
ers were allowed to ride it. 
“That’s one of the perks of 
working at Disney,” said 
Belzcr, "you’re animating 
one day and riding an ele¬ 
phant the next!” 

Numerous paleontologists 
were bro ughtin as consul¬ 
tants on the film, but co-pro¬ 
ducer Bloodworth knows that 
there are other dinosaur ex¬ 
perts out there, just wailing to 
pounce on some of the liber¬ 
ties the film has taken. 

“This is not a scientifical¬ 
ly accurate film,” added 
Bloodworth,” and we would 
never pretend that it is. We 
are telling a story and we are 
taking creative license to 
make our characters interest¬ 


ing. But, we know people are 
ready to tear us apart. In some 
sense, you do care about that, 
because it is someone’s opinion. 
On the other hand, paleontolo¬ 
gists and scientists really don’t 
agree on what happened. Histo¬ 
ry, here, is not entirely final." 

Adding to the creative leap 
of faith that DINOSAUR lakes 
is the fact that the creatures talk. 
The cast includes actor D.B. 
Sweeney as Aladar, and, as the 
lemurs, Alfre Woodard as Plio, 
Ossie Davis as Yar. Hayden 
Panettiere (the young actress 
who was the voice of Dot in A 
BUG’S LIFE), and Max Casclla 
as Zini. As the group of di¬ 
nosaurs, the Iguanodans Necra 
and Bruton are voiced by Ju¬ 
lianna Margulies and Peter Sira- 
gusa, respectively, Joan Plow¬ 


((This is not a scientifically ac¬ 
curate film,” said co-producer Baker 
Bloodworth, “and we would never 
pretend it is. We are telling a story 
and taking creative license.” 




probably the strongest theme 
that's in the picture/' said 
Zondag. It’s no stretch to find 
an analogy between the film's 
theme of accepting change and 
the fact that DINOSAUR was 
created by that most popular 
symbol of recent change, the 
computer. 

“There was definitely a fear 
(of computers] for years, espe¬ 
cially from animators," said 
Zondag. whose background is 
in traditional animation and, 
ironically, also in dinosaur re¬ 
lated films (he eo-directed Arn- 
blimation’s WE’RE BACK and 
animated on Don Blulh’s 
LAND BEFORE TIME). 1 I 
think part of that fear was just 
not understanding it. I think 
what's happened is that technol¬ 
ogy has strengthened over the 
years. As it gets stronger, it 
starts attracting really talented 
artists, which make it that much 
better. The possibilities with it 
then become endless. It opens 
up a new door for storytelling.” 

"Making this movie was 
like jumping off of a cliff," 
added Leighton, who came to 
DINOSAUR via the handcraft¬ 
ed world of stop-motion ani¬ 
mation. “I hadn't really 
touched a computer before this 
film and I'm not very good at 
video games, but it was a chal¬ 
lenge and a good one. To me, 
that meant a potential for 
growth.” 

DINOSAUR even broke 
ground literally. While in pro¬ 
duction, Disney built a complete 
“in-house" digital studio to not 
only house the film, but also lay 
the tracks for future digital pro¬ 
ductions. “This whole studio, 
which has now been named 
The Secret Lab’ at Disney, was 
built by and for DINOSAUR," 
said Leighton. “Hopefully, 
we've been able to set up a nice 
paradigm for the future.” 

Bloodworth added. “Wc had 
to do what no other filmmaking 
crew has ever had to do. Wc had 
to hire 350 artists, which took a 
year and a half. Then, we had to 
try and figure out how to make 
a movie that no one has ever 
made before.” 

Animator Bel/er concluded, 
“It's an exciting time for anima¬ 
tion. almost the SNOW WHITE 
time of computer animation. 
We're doing first-time efforts 
and to see the populous respond 
to that, has been thrilling." 



Behind-the-scenes of “The Secret Lab, ” 
ushering in a new age of filmmaking. 


By Mike Lyons 

DINOSAUR could give 
way to an unstoppable fu¬ 
ture for animation—and for 
Disney. Adding to the surre¬ 
al quality of the film is the 
fact that its computer-gen¬ 
erated images were com¬ 
bined with digitally en¬ 
hanced live-action back¬ 
grounds. 

Unlike Hollywood's last 
two dinosaur films (JUR¬ 
ASSIC PARK and THE 
LOST WORLD), DINO¬ 
SAUR doesn’t just contain 
several scenes with the mam¬ 
moth beasts, they’re in every 
scene. This meant that every¬ 
thing in DINOSAUR came 
down to the details. Noted visu¬ 
al effects supervisor Neal Krc- 
pela, “Since every shot counted, 
they had to be a lot more seam¬ 
less than a big effects extrava¬ 
ganza. In this film, you’re scru¬ 
tinizing everything, as part of 
the effect is the character.” 

Audiences w ill see such nu¬ 
ances as the flair of dinosaur 
nostrils, the quivering of di¬ 
nosaur lips and a tear welling 
in a dinosaur eye. The film al¬ 
so breaks new ground for the 
realism of the dinosaur’s skin. 
One of the saviors of the film 
was Sean Phillips, who imple¬ 
mented the computer program 
that allowed for more skin 
elasticity. “What we added 
was an additional layer of hav¬ 
ing skin moved by muscles, 
rather than by the bone struc¬ 
tures directly underneath it," 
said Phillips. 

Essentially, this meant that 
each of the major characters in 
DINOSAUR had their own, 
anatomically correct, muscle 
system built on the computer. 
Skin was then “shrink-wrapped" 
on this musculature. “The big 
thing we were looking to get 
was the secondary motion." 
added Phillips. “Wc observed 
and used a lot of video tape ref- 



1 Secret Lab' digital effects supervisor Neil 
Eskuri, "we were working with software that 
hadn’t even gone out on the market yet." 


crcncc of elephants and the big 
thing that really stood out was 
this secondary ‘jiggling’ of 
masses, when the character 
moves. We were also looking to 
get all of this to happen auto¬ 
matically, so that the animator 
wouldn't have to animate each 
muscle. We had so many shots 
in this movie that we needed 
something that was largely auto¬ 
matic.” 

As the film moved through 
production, technology contin¬ 
ued to advance, as did DI¬ 
NOSAUR'S visual effects 
crew. “We were working with 
software that hadn’t even gone 
out to the market yet," said 
digital effects supervisor Neil 
Eskuri, “We would develop a 
certain functionality or tech¬ 
nique. then there’d be a new 
cut and everything we devel¬ 
oped wouldn't work. It was al¬ 
ways two steps forward and 
one step back.” 

Essentially, DINOSAUR 
was accomplished using 
“every trick in the book,” as 
Krcpcla said. Live-action 
footage of such locations as 
Death Valley were scanned in¬ 
to the computer and later com¬ 
bined with the digital images 
of the dinosaurs. “Wc had to 
think that the characters were 
always there,” said Krcpcla of 


the live-action scenes. “The 
photography and the location 
design had to complement 
that.” 

These live-action scenes 
were also “tweaked" digital¬ 
ly, with the addition of a 
background matte or even the 
combination of two separate 
location shots, to create a 
“virtual set” inside the com¬ 
puter. 

Due to its scope, DI¬ 
NOSAUR led to sonic true 
“headaches" during produc¬ 
tion. “One of the biggest 
challenge for us was the 
amount of interaction the 
characters had with water,” 
admitted Eskuri. “When 
you're looking at a character 
on the screen and it doesn't 
look the way it should, it can 
lake you out of the moment.” 

Since CGI (computer gener¬ 
ated imagery) first entered 
Hollywood lexicon, many have 
predicted that a film that's en¬ 
tirely digital was on its way. 
DINOSAUR has become the 
closest thing, so far. “There 
will be an all-digital film 
someday that has alt human 
characters in it," noted Eskuri. 
“Things are only going to get 
better.” 

Noted Krcpcla of DI¬ 
NOSAUR, “A whole new realm 
has been opened and it ’ups' the 
believability quotient." 


Software designer Sean Phillips, who 
implemented new programs that gave 
the dinosaurs greater fleshy realism. 



11 





















I 



Director Paul Verhoeven on his update of 
The Invisible Man, starring Kevin Bacon. 


By Douglas Eby 

Director James Whale (subject of 
GODS AND MONSTERS) was re¬ 
nowned for his films of the Frankenstein 
and Bride monsters, and also the endur¬ 
ing classic THE INVISIBLE MAN, star¬ 
ring Claude Rains who spent the entire 
film living up to the title. Director Paul 
Vcrhoevcn’s new version of the story 
“about the horror of going too far out and 
not being able to gel back” (as one re¬ 
view described the earlier film) may have 
similarities, but also some notable differ¬ 
ences compared with the classic. In THE 
HOLLOW MAN, for one thing, star 
Kevin Bacon is visible through about the 
first third of the film, establishing his 
character as Sebastian Caine, and his col¬ 
leagues, played by Josh Brolin and Elisa¬ 
beth Shue. Sony opens Vcrhneven's film 
nationwide July 28. 

“This is a group of scientists, and you 
see w hat their characters are, what their 
relationships are, their animosities, their 
friendships, love situations," Verhoeven 
said. "For, say, 30 minutes, he's very visi¬ 
ble. It’s only past around page 45 that he 
becomes invisible. The essence of the 
problem is they can make him invisible, 
but they can’t bring him back. It has 
worked on mammals, on apes, but some¬ 
how' when they try it on a human being, who 
has a DN A chain that is slightly different, it 
didn’t work. The second part of the movie is 
about what that docs to him psychologically, 
what he becomes, what kind of strange 
things are accentuated in his personality that 
ultimately make him evil." 

In the classic, Claude Rains was credited 
as “The Invisible One" and could be seen 
only because he gets covered from head to 
foot, in normal clothing, plus goggles, rub¬ 
ber gloves and bandages over his face. 
Caine, after discovering a kind of scrum 
that renders his tissues progressively invisi¬ 
ble, and finding that he can’t return to being 
visible, wears a latex mask (which had to be 
glued onto Bacon’s face) to keep from 
freaking out his colleagues too much. There 
are eye holes cut out so he can see, but any¬ 
one looking at him with the mask on secs 



Verhoeven, director of science fiction hits like ROBOCOP 
and STARSHIP TROOPERS, tackles H. G, Wells' venerable 
concept of how great power leads to moral corruption. 


through the eye holes to the inside back sur¬ 
face of the mask. 

“That’s why it’s called THE HOLLOW 
MAN,” Verhoeven explained. And the 
mouth of the mask is also cut out, he added, 
and "when he talks, his lips and teeth arc in- 
visible, so you can see the back of (he 
head.” Making Kevin Bacon invisible in¬ 
volves his wearing a green, black or blue 
suit, with matching color full contact lens¬ 
es, and wearing a very tight fitting leotard. 
“If he has to do something complicated, like 
this,” Verhoeven demonstrated, pulling the 
sweater he’s had loosely draped across his 
shoulders up over his head like a scarf, 
"you’re better off letting him do it. But then 
you have a green man sitting there, so what 
you have to do is paint the green man out, 
and to do that means you have to shoot it 
again without him there, so you can borrow 


the background. Taking things out of a 
shot is, strangely enough, more compli¬ 
cated than adding things. If you take 
things out, you miss the background, so 
you have to restore it. STARSHIP 
TROOPERS was mostly putting things 
in, and the only problem you had there 
was all the animation.” 

Verhoeven noted he did not review- the 
classic James Whale film to prepare for 
his new version of the story, but had seen 
it as a child. “I remembered it very w'ell, 
because I was seven or eight, and it was 
great stuff at that time.” One of the themes 
of both films is the moral consequences of 
the power you’d have if you could not be 
seen. Verhoeven read "a little bit of philo¬ 
sophical stuff,” he said. “Mainly Plato, 
and in one of his books. The Republic , he 
talks about invisibility. An invisible per¬ 
son. in his opinion, would be suffering 
hubris, because he could do everything 
and get away with it. and that would make 
you evil. That’s Plato, and that’s basically 
what [scrcenwriter| Andrew Marlowe 
wrote. In eighteenth century writing, there 
are also stories of invisible people that be¬ 
come mean. Thai’s really the philosophi¬ 
cal theme, 1 think." 

Asked about the tone of the film, Ver¬ 
hoeven said, “It’s certainly psychological, 
because the relationships of the people are 
well-defined, and are just kind of interesting. 
In the earlier part of the movie there’s this 
scientific experiment, and you clearly have 
these relationships. But you also have a fan¬ 
tasy element,” he added, referring to Caine’s 
discovery of the process to make himself dis¬ 
appear. "'ITiey make something up that’s irra¬ 
diated or whatever,” Verhoeven explained, 
“and then get it inside him through an IV and 
he slowly becomes invisible. The skin disap¬ 
pears and you see all the muscular layers. He 
walks around a bit like that, like he’s been 
skinned. So it’s different layers that become 
invisible, the skin, then the muscular struc¬ 
ture, the tendons, then the organs, the skele¬ 
ton. then nothing is visible. And you see this 
happening, and he’s moving a lot, because 
it’s painful.” 

This group of scientists, led by Caine, are 
working in the traditional “secret govern- 


12 











fit [The film] talks about 
quantum physics. I 
can tell you, it’s the ut¬ 
most nonsense. If you 
accept the premise, the 
movie is very realistic. 5 5 


—Director Paul Verhoeven— 


over the head. If you express him in another 
medium than air, you see his form: in water, 
in rain, fog, in smoke. There’s a scene where 
he dives into a swimming pool and you see 
this human air bubble.” 

Verhoeven avoided any scene of Caine 
drinking or eating, "Because we’re all very 
much aware that if he did, you would see it 
going down the throat. To see a piece of 
bread going down an invisible throat, I 
don’t think that’s really scary, or even 
tense. It would be funny.” He also chose not 
to have the character smoke. "That makes 
the lungs visible, and it’s very weird,” Ver¬ 
hoeven said. "One of the big things that An¬ 
drew did in his writing is he avoided all 
these traps.” A scene with the invisible 
character fighting a normal, visible one, 
could also have been merely comical, but 
"was staged so he was partly visible in 
some way: getting wet, or having blood 
spattered on him or something,” the director 
explained. “You could see part of the face, 
or the hands.” One movie Verhoeven cited 
as an example of how not to do it was THE 
INVISIBLE MANIAC (1990): "the guy 
went after the girls. They would be standing 
around and then suddenly...” he demon¬ 
strates someone getting pulled to the side 
by an invisible force. "I can’t guarantee that 
I’ve avoided all these traps, but I’ve tried to 
do it in a way that would not be silly. That it 
would be at least erotic, if something like 
that happens. And it docs: there is a sexual 
component there. He knows he can get 
away with everything, and he docs a couple 
of things. That’s the beginning of his evil¬ 
ness, I would say.” 

i-fitting | n Edition to writer Andrew 

'Cts work 

Marlowe, the production team 
includes director of photogra- 
; phy Jost Vacano (STARSHIP 
IS TROOPERS); production de- 
IkJ signer Allen Cameron (THE 
r^yjr MUMMY); costume designer 
Ellen Mirojnick (BASIC IN¬ 
STINCT); editor Mark Goldblatt 
,..r (ARMAGEDDON) and produc- 
WT—^ ers Alan Marshall (STARSHIP 
rf* TROOPERS), Marion Rosen- 

berg and Douglas Wick 

(WOLF). All the effects work is 

* * 

currently being handled by Sony 
^ Imageworks under the supervj- 
4 JMfPH sion of Scott Anderson. 


Researchers Elisabeth Shue and Josh Brolln struggle to devise an antidote to save arrogant team leader 
Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) from the dangerous side effects of his top-secret formula for Invisibility. 


13 







An audience on-set with Bullwinkle J. Moose 


“I just loved this idiot savant moose!” said 
producer Jane Rosenthal. “What’s so special 
about him was he had this wonderful, child¬ 
like way of looking at the world.” 



DeNiro plays Fearless Leader, getting a much-needed make-over, and 
produced the live action cartoon adaptation through his Tribeca Productions. 


By Joe Fordham 

Poised in the Noel Coward, 
raconteur style he epitomized in 
Bullwinkle *s Corner, the moose 
star of ROCKY AND BULL¬ 
WINKLE reflected on his re¬ 
cent rediscovery and the inter¬ 
vening years of incognito fame. 
While he and his airborne squir¬ 
rel friend may have been out of 
the public eye in Frostbite Falls, 
Minnesota, the public's appetite 
for Jay Ward Studio magic has 
been maintained beyond the 
more obvious recent live action 
movie versions of Bullwinkle 
spinoffs, GEORGE OF THE 
JUNGLE and DUDLEY DO- 
RIGHT. "This is kind of an up¬ 
dated version of what we used 
to be, which was a satire on the 
old blood and thunder Republic 
serials." stated the moose, as he 
relaxed in his trailer during a 
break from filming outside Uni¬ 
versal's Stage 16. "The present 
generation needs to be educated 
a little bit, but I think they're 
going to love it because they've 
had THE SIMPSONS and REN 
AND STIMPY. We were really 
THE SIMPSONS of our time." 

Look for the "Jay Rated" 
connection. Bullwinkle J. Moose 
and Rocket J. Squirrel were cre¬ 
ated by Jay Ward and Bill J. 
Scott. Now the summer of 2000 
sees the release of Universal J. 
Pictures THE ADVENTURES 
OF ROCKY AND BULL¬ 
WINKLE, a live action/animat¬ 
ed feature for Robert J. DeNiro 's 
Tribeca Productions. The moose 
just laughed and confirmed his 
Pottsylvanian nemesis is por¬ 
trayed in the movie by flesh and 
blood performers with Jason 
Alexander and Renee Russo, lit¬ 
eral ly zapping through from 
their former 2-D cartoon forms 
in the beginning of the movie to 
fill the shoes of Boris and 
Natasha. “I think the fact that 
Bob DeNiro is playing Fearless 
Leader is just a hoot in itself.” 
chuckled the Moose. “It’s his 


production company, Tribeca, 
you know, producing this film. 
They’ve been trying to get this 
project off the ground for the last 
four years." My host leaned for¬ 
ward conspiratorially, lowering 
his voice. “My own personal 
feeling is it's been a stretch for 
him to play a cartoon character 
after being recognized for such 
heavy dramatics and villainous 
characters. It should be said that 
he has a great light touch." 

A pounding on the door 
broke the mood. “Five minutes, 
please. Mister Moose!” A few 
more rapid fire questions re¬ 
vealed snippets of the Bullwin¬ 
kle plot and confirmed the in¬ 
volvement of Tiffany Ward, 
daughter of the late, great Jay. 
We start in 2-D Frostbite Falls 
with our heroes receiving their 
latest royalty check from TV re¬ 
runs. A call from Hollywood 


ensues, wherein Minnie Mogul, 
studio head of Phony Pictures 
International played by Jancanc 
Garofolo. proposes a live big 
screen adventure to be directed 
by William Biggershol (Carl 
Reiner), to help combat the rise 
of the insidious rise of a new 
network. Really Bad TV. run by 
a particular Pottsylvanian with a 
harsh haircut. Our cartoon he¬ 
roes ally themselves with agent 
Karen Sympathy of the F.B.I., 
played by newcomer Piper Per- 
abo, as a bigger plot unfolds. 
Puns and hijinks abound, alas 
without the Metal Munching 
Moon-Mice or Captain Peach- 
fuzz, although look carefully 
and you might spot a few famil¬ 
iar passersby and nods to the 
old 1960's show. 

Pursuing Bullwinkle on set, I 
entered another world, a 
strangely too-perfcct alternate 


reality of bright, flat colors and 
simple lines. Director Des 
MacAnuff was busy by the cam¬ 
era, planning a climactic mo¬ 
ment with Bullwinkle and staff 
from ILM. Amongst the busy 
crowd, a friendly face appeared. 
A tall, pleasant, educated Eng¬ 
lishman introduced himself, sent 
over by the Moose, “Gavin Boc- 
quet, production designer.” 

Hauling shut the towering 
sound-stage doors, Bocquet 
scaled us in behind the rafters 
that housed his latest creation, 
the towering set of the Fearless 
Leader's base of operations at 
RBTV, one of the many ports of 
call on Rocky and Bullwinkle’s 
adventure. Bocquet handled 
similar duties for STAR WARS, 
EPISODES 1 and 2. “It’s been 
nice to get my head somewhere 
else before I go back into the 
mad world of other planets, but 
I can't talk about that at all." he 
grinned. So what could he tell 
me of his work with the Moose? 

"When I started, Des 
McAnuff, the director, had 
some idea conceptually of 
where it was going but he was 
pretty loose about the look of all 
the sets,” recalled Bocquet. 
“We’ve tried to give the film a 
stylized, caricatured feel, but 
not something that would throw 
the audience off. They need to 
know when they are either in 
cartoon land or in the real world 
with a little bit of feeling of the 
cartoon world. We've been 
quite neat and simple in our de¬ 
signs, but very bold with colors 
and big splodges of color. 
Rocky and Bullwinkle them¬ 
selves were originally going to 
be created cither with 2-D ani¬ 
mation. like ROGER RABBIT, 
or totally 3-D, like JURASSIC 
PARK. They came up with a 2 
1/2-D approach.” 

Bocquet detailed his experi¬ 
ence with obvious glee before 
heading back to where action 
was hotting up on set with Bull¬ 
winkle stunt coordinator. Doug 


14 



















and a peek at his co-star 9 Robert J. DeNiro. 



DeNiro with Renee Russo and Jason Alexander as Boris & Natasha, and ILM's 2 1/2D 
animation of the ’60s cartoon Icons, klbbutzing with audiences nationwide June 23, 


Coleman, and Roger Guyett, 
visual effects supervisor for 
ILM. Guyett spoke about his 
work on set with McAnuff. 
“Des is definitely keeping the 
feeling of the original car- 
toon, using very flat-on 
views, then you punch in for 
the closeup and cut back out; 
but it’s also fun because 
Rocky and Bullwinkle are 
such great characters. I par¬ 
ticularly love Bullwinkle and 
his complete mental lunacy, 
the way he moves and every¬ 
thing, it’s almost like he has 
dislocated joints. He's pretty 
mad, you know. Dave An¬ 
drews, who's the ILM anima¬ 
tion supervisor, has a great 
understanding of alt that. He 
really is Bullwinkle." 

The evening's shoot pro¬ 
ceeded with repeated takes of 
Bullwinkle tossing purple- 
suited guards around the 
RBTV set. The lead Pottsylvan- 
iun honchos did not materialize 
and the evening concluded with 
questions still unanswered. 
How, after all these years, has 
the big break come for the fa¬ 
mous Moose? And how did 
Robert J. DeNiro fit in? Screen¬ 
writer Kenneth Lonergan added 
insight from his home in New 
York. ‘*1 wrote the original 
script for ANALYZE THIS and 
in 1992 I started a relationship 
with Tribeca based on that. 
About two years later, producer 
Jane Rosenthal asked me if I 
could think of a pitch for Rocky 
and Bullwinkle.” 

Lonergan, a man of dry, 
good-natured wit, a borderline 
baby-boomer born in 1962, 
based his recollection of the 
show on childhood memories of 
re-reruns and a process of rese¬ 
ct imation via video. His concept 
for the cartoon-within-the- 
movie-within-a-movie captured 
the original's self-deferential in¬ 
tent, launched the project at Uni¬ 
versal and was awarded a “Jay 
rated” Ward seal of approval. As 


satisfying as the experience has 
been for the writer, who is now 
preparing his first directing pro¬ 
ject, Lonergan admitted it had 
been DeNiro*s association that 
had hooked him. “The first thing 
Jane told me was she had a pro¬ 
ject for me and DeNiro was in¬ 
volved,”—he laughed—“It was 
not the first thing you’d expect 
him to be involved with.” So, 
how come DeNiro? “You got 
me,” said Lopergan. “I met him 
at the read-through and he was 
very nice, then I saw him walk 
by once. I said, whoa, it’s Robert 
DeNiro. That was kind of 
thrilling.” 

The production was about to 
hit the road for its final phase of 
shooting, a road trip that fol¬ 
lows our cartoon heroes across 
the nation to a showdown in 
Washington D.C.. Snatching a 
few minutes from her busy 
schedule, Rosenthal, the driving 
force behind Tribeca's jugger¬ 
naut, found time to shed light 
on Lonergan's comments. 

“1 just loved this idiot sa¬ 
vant moose! What's so special 


about him was he had this 
wonderful, child-like way of 
looking at the world. Six years 
ago, my then-boyfriend, who 
became my husband, gave me 
the collected tapes of all the 
Rocky and Bullwinkle shows,” 
stated the producer. “I'd loved 
them as a kid, and I found them 
just as entertaining as an adult. 
I thought, hmm, this could 
make an interesting live-action 
movie. Tribcca was not neces¬ 
sarily known for doing any¬ 
thing like this, but I was very 
tired of seeing all these dark, 
serial killer movies or gangster 
pictures every time somebody 
sent me a script. So the next 
time I was in L.A., I met with 
Tiffany Ward, then came back 
and spoke with Bob. First he 
rolled his eyes and looked at 
me as if 1 was off my tree. He 
wasn't familiar with the series. 
This was around the time War¬ 
ren Beatty did DICK TRACY, 
Dustin Hoffman did HOOK 
and Jack Nicholson had ap¬ 
peared in BATMAN. Bob 
eventually decided it would be 


fun to try a real caricatured 
character.” 

It was also Rosenthal's vi¬ 
sion that answered one of the 
fundamental concepts trou¬ 
bling potential writers. “They 
couldn't understand why 
Boris and Natasha and the 
Fearless Leader would be 
live action, while Rocky and 
Bullwinkle were animated. 
That was a big question for 
everybody.” The problem 
was answered by the film’s 
all-seeing, all-knowing Nar¬ 
rator. “He just says he didn’t 
write the movie,” Rosenthal 
laughed. “I didn't want to see 
anybody walking around in a 
moose suit.” 

So, summer 2000, June 23, 
the original, one and only 
Bullwinkle J. Moose returns 
in his new revitalized cartoon 
form (voiced by Keith Scott), 
with Rocky (voiced by June 
Foray) and a cavalcade of new 
Hollywood friends (Garofolo, 
Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, 
Randy Quaid, Kenan and Kel...). 

A return visit to the Bullwin¬ 
kle caravan revealed an idyllic 
if bustling and heavily guarded 
set in a comer of L.A.’s historic 
movie location, Griffith Park. 
The cartoon star was relaxing, 
nibbling a donut in the shade. 

“You must never tamper 
with a classic character,” con¬ 
fided the moose. “But there's a 
lot of recognition in this movie 
that the world has changed 
since we were in syndication. I 
watched the moose hurry off to 
join his squirrel co-star at the 
camera, where a fan ran for¬ 
ward from the crowd waving an 
autograph book and pen. “No 
publicity, puh-lease!” ex¬ 
claimed the moose. “Help! I'm 
in dire J. peril!” squealed the 
squirrel. Security ran forward, 
but both superstars just laughed 
and signed, and one more happy 
fan went away, delirious. Rest 
assured, T.V. fans. Rocky and 
Bullwinkle are back. 


15 























Don Bluth on animating Fox’s 
teen science fiction adventure. 


By Mike Lyons 

With (heir animated science fiction fea¬ 
ture, TITAN. A.E., Fox Animation Studio is 
taking a bold step. No. it's not the fact that 
they’re one of the David-like studios going 
up against the Goliath that is Disney. With 
TITAN. A.G. (due in theatres June 16th), 
Fox is attempting what has been heretofore 
impossible in animation: winning over a 
teenage audience. 

"Our target, since we began, was to go 
after the hardest marketplace for animation: 
the 14-year-old male,” said Gary Goldman, 
who co-directs the film with Don Bluth. 
“This is the audience who has divorced ani¬ 
mation, until they get older, because they 
feel that they're not little kids anymore and 
their parents have only taken them to see 
animated movies. It’s going to be a strug¬ 
gle. it’s a hard market to try and crack.” 

Goldman and Bluth arc animation veter¬ 
ans. who have created a string of popular 
films, since their defection from The Mouse 
House in the early '80s. THE SECRET OF 
NIMH (1982), AN AMERICAN TAIL 
(1986) and THE LAND BEFORE TIME 
(1988) arc just a few of their 11 features. 

In 1997, Bluth and Goldman directed 
ANASTASIA, their first feature for Fox. 


which proved not only to be a success, but 
also that there was room out there for other 
animation studios. Since then, the two have 
also directed last year’s direct-to-vidco se¬ 
quel, BARTOKTHE MAGNIFICENT, 
which centered on the wisecracking, side- 
kick bat from ANASTASIA. 

“When we came to Fox," remembered 
Bluth, “one of the things that we all talked 
about was that we shouldn't try to be a 
‘Disney wanna-be.’ We wanted to make a 
picture that's edgier, still reaches the family 
and goes a little further and even brings in 
the teenagers.” 

“What we’re excited about with [TI¬ 
TAN, A.E.| is that we’re doing something 
that you wouldn’t expect from Don and 
Gary,” added Goldman. "Our characters are 
not going to break into song, but there is an 
over-lhe-edge rock-and-roll score that plays 
underneath the action.” 

Set in the year 3028, TITAN, A.E. re¬ 
volves around Cale, a young boy who is sep¬ 
arated from his father, while the Drej (blue 
aliens who wear death-like hoods) attack 
Earth. After Earth is destroyed, those humans 
who escape (including Calc) arc reduced to a 
small number of refugees and are now count¬ 
ed among the lowest forms of species. 

The film then flash-forwards 15 years. 



when Gale is working as a mechanic on a 
"third rate asteroid.” “He’s really at the bot¬ 
tom rung of the whole social ladder at this 
point,” notes Bluth of the character. “There 
are only about another five humans on the 
same planet with him, the rest are aliens. 
So, he’s been picked on his whole life and 
he’s got a chip on his shoulder.” 

Joe Korso. Captain of the ship, the 
Valkyrie, discovers Cale. He was a friend of 
Cate’s father and informs the young man 
that a ring he wears contains a map to the 
spaceship, the Titan. Created by Calc’s fa¬ 
ther, the ship, which was jettisoned before 
the destruction of Earth, has the capacity to 
create a new Earth. 

The Drej discover that this map exists 
and, in an attempt to prevent the human 
race from re-populating, try to kill Cale. 
The young, reluctant hero is then forced to 
escape with Korso, who then go on a search 
to find the Titan before the Drej. 

“It’s very faced paced," noted Goldman. 
“In fact we re-worked a few scenes to see if 
we could get some more comedy out of it, 
because it's a pretty intense film.” 

“We spent a lot of time drumming up 
ideas that had been done in science fiction 
and saying, *We can’t do that,’” said Bluth 
of fashioning TITAN'S story. “It was tough. 



Cale (left) Is the young hero who works on the asteroid, hot-dogging K EVA. The Drej (below), Earth's destroyers, seek to stop Cale from recapturing Earth's glory. 






*7 







# 


fculi • 


- V 


» ; T9£?v>. i-J 



£ ( Our target, since we be¬ 
gan, was to go after the 
hardest market for ani¬ 
mation: the 14-year-old 
male. They feel that they’re 
not kids anymore.” 

—Co director Gary Goldman— 


— . - . 



With Earth destroyed by alien invaders, a few of the last remnants of humanity work as lackeys on a third 
rate asteroid (above) after escaping the destruction of the planet on an ark ship dubbed the Titan (below). 

actually. In some cases though, 

I think it does come close to the 
original mark." 

“This movie is more charac¬ 
ter driven than hardware dri¬ 
ven.” added Goldman. “What 
we tried to do was give you im¬ 
ages and designs that you had¬ 
n’t seen before.” 

Computer generated imagery 
(CGI) plays a larger part in TI¬ 
TAN, A.E. than it has in many 
other traditionally animated fea¬ 
tures. Blended in with the hand-drawn char¬ 
acters are such computer created images as 
armadas of spaceships, the Drej army and ex¬ 
plosion upon explosion, 

“Sixty-five percent of this movie is 
CGI,” added Bluth. “Some part of it, even if 
it’s just a background, is 3-D. The 2-D and 
3-D departments had to continually cross 
check with one another.” 

TITAN, A.E., like many big studio ani¬ 
mated features, also boasts an A-list cast of 
voices, including Matt Damon as Cate. “Matt 
has made a tremendous effort with this Him,” 
noted Goldman. “When we’d bring him back 
for ‘looping,’ he give us the line, the way it 


was written. 'l*hen. he’d say, *Ya know, that’s 
not the way I would have acted it.’ So we’d 
let him do it his own way and he’d still make 
it work. He’ll also listen to other lines he’s 
recorded and say, *1 can do that better, too.’ 
He’s been extremely cooperative.’’ 

Bill Pullman (INDEPENDENCE DAY’S 
President) plays Corso with Drew Barry¬ 
more as Akima, the tough and sexy co-pilot 
of the Valkyrie. “Corso is the swashbuck¬ 
ling type,” said Bluth. “It’s the kind of role 
that Burt Lancaster would have played and 
Bill Pullman rose to that challenge and did 
a really good job. Drew sort of bumps her¬ 
self out of that sweet role she usually plays. 


With Captain Korao (I). Cate's ring shows the location of the Than, the key to recreating a new Earth. 



This time she’s a kick-ass heroine.” 

And, as the Valkyrie’s alien crew: 
Nathan Lane (Timon in Disney’s THE LI¬ 
ON KING) as first male Preed, John 
Lcguizamo (SPAWN) as Gunc the naviga¬ 
tor and Janeane Garofalo (MYSTERY 
MEN) as Sith, the weapons specialist. 

Goldman remembers when such large 
casts and high-tech production values 
weren’t even a glimmer of hope for TITAN, 
A.E. In fact, when the two first came 
aboard, the film still had its original title, 
PLANET ICE. 

“Fox was working with anoth¬ 
er director before Don and I 
were brought on board. We had 
to come in when there was about 
a year and a half wprth of pre- 
production work done, but no 
continuity — nothing on film. We 
used a lot of pre-production stuff 
(hat was created, but we had to 
rc-struclurc. The big challenge 
has been that they’ve given us a 
specific amount of money and in 
order to do the project for that 
amount, we had to complete it in 19 months. 
We had just gotten off BA RIO K, where we 
had a low budget and had finished in 14 
months. The crew had busted their butt. 
Then, we turned around and told them, 
‘Okay, now we have to do TITAN, A.E. in 
19 months.”’ Goldman then added with a 
laugh, “You could hear the screams." 

Despite such an unorthodox schedule for 
an animated feature, Bluth noted that the 
thrill of making TITAN, A.E. was in the 
process itself. 

“It’s an extremely exhilarating experi¬ 
ence when a movie begins to come together. 
You start with nothing. You then hunt and 
peck and hunt and peck; drawings arc done 
and drawings arc thrown away. It’s tike 
birthing something. As you get closer and 
closer to it, there's an amazing moment that 
happens, where the work starts to talk to 
you, it starts to tell you what it wants to be¬ 
come. By then, the movie is usually trying 
to grow and find it's own shape and form. 
There’s just an energy that gets going. By 
the time you sec the first trailer, you find 
yourself saying. ‘Wow this is really some¬ 
thing! But, it still always surprises me be¬ 
cause, when you first start, you never think 
that this airplane will fly.” □ 


17 








Superstar 

By Dan Persons 

Guess what? 1D4 occurred, 
and wc lost. Civilization was de¬ 
stroyed, the aliens took over, and 
the Earth was annexed as a not- 
very-promising source of raw 
materials for an interstellar min¬ 
ing firm. The pathetic remnants 
of humanity have lapsed—over 
a span of centuries—into abject 
primitivism. They huddle in 
caves or struggle for survival in 
crude villages, that is, when the 
aliens aren't hunting down and 
capturing them for use as slave 
labor in the mines. 

Bummer. But not to worry, for 
all that is about to change. One of 
the alien overseers is about to 
make a grave error by under-esti¬ 
mating the indomitabilily of the 
human spirit; one of the slaves is 
about to discover that his blood¬ 
line was born for things better 
than groveling under the boots of 
lizard-like bully-boys. It's all 
packed into the screenplay for 
BATTLEFIELD EARTH, and 
when director Roger Christian 
was handed a copy, he seized the 
opportunity to assume the not-in- 
consequential task of translating 



Travolta as Terl. a Psychlo plunderer of Earth, with Barry Pepper as Jonnie. Below: Human slaves mine gold for the 
Psychlos. Right: Hubbard's best-seller, a pet project which Travolta seeks to establish as on on-going film franchise 

■ irirnffirTT'-T”'rf”" 




























John IVavolta shepherds L. Ron Hubbard. 


Hit’s basically a very real world, 
quite funny, but by observation, 
not comedy. You see the way Psy- 
chlos treat humans and by obser¬ 
vation you can laugh at that.” 



Director Roger Christian and production designer Patrick Tatopoulos on the set 
in Montreal. Warner Bros opens the science fiction epic nationwide May 12. 


the first half of L. Ron Hubbard's 
epic novel to the screen. Warner 
Bros, opens the film nationwide 
May 12. 

“The book is basically the fu¬ 
eling ground for the movie," said 
the director, whose previous cred¬ 
its include MASTERMINDS, 
NOSTRADAMUS, and STAR- 
SHIP. “It's a huge science fiction 
book, the premise of David and 
Goliath, the hero's journey, 
clothed in a different way. 

“The premise is that human 
beings have basically been oblit¬ 
erated by a planet called Psych¬ 
ic, who mine and rule the uni¬ 
verse. A few humans have sur¬ 
vived who are living in wild 
cave regions and have basically 
forgotten their history. The Psy- 
chios arc mining the planet, get¬ 
ting as much as they can out of it 
until they abandon it. They treat 
the ‘man-animals,’ as they call 
them, as vermin that they just 
use for bits of manual work. So 
out of that rises a kind of hero— 
an anti-hero—with destiny call¬ 
ing, who rides out knowing 
there’s more and gets trapped 
and captured by the Psychlos 
and put to work in the mines. He 
leads a revolution to defeat them 
and save humanity.” 

Warner Bros and Morgan 
Creek have joined forces to pro¬ 
duce the film, the pet project of 
star and first-time producer 
John Travolta. The film is in¬ 
tended to leverage the big-thrill 
expectations of the STAR 
WARS crowd through a combi¬ 
nation of high-ticket action and 
character-driven drama. 

The late author L. Ron Hub¬ 
bard was himself no stranger to 
drama. A contemporary of the 
likes of Robert Heinlein and 
Isaac Asimov, he'd made a 
name for himself churning out 
short stories for the Golden Age 
pulps, as well as producing sev¬ 
eral notable novels, including 
such surreal efforts as Fear , 
about a man searching for the 


lost hours of his life, and Type¬ 
writer in the Sky, in which the 
protagonist—in a scenario that 
predates bv decades THE PUR¬ 
PLE ROSE OF CAIRO and 
PLEASANTVILLE—finds 
himself trapped in the novel his 
friend is writing. 

At the time Hubbard created 
Battlefield Earth , though, the 
author was gaining more atten¬ 
tion for the mental-health theo¬ 
ries espoused in his book, Dia- 
netics , and the religion that 
those theories spawned, Scien¬ 
tology. Maybe nostalgic for his 
pulp roots, he came up with a 
one-thousand page novel filled 
with evil, alien invaders and the 
type of tongue-in-cheek specu¬ 
lative fiction that readers of 
post-war genre magazines had 
come to know and love. 


In his long-format reconjur- 
ing of the Golden Age, Hubbard 
told the story of Jonnie “Good- 
boy” Tyler, a muscular primi¬ 
tive living a life of depredation 
and misery within a small vil¬ 
lage. Believing, despite warn¬ 
ings from his village elders, that 
something better lay beyond the 
limits of his world, Jonnie 
mounts his trusty horse and 
strikes out into the desert, un¬ 
sure of what he’ll find, knowing 
only that he has to find it. 

What he discovers is far be¬ 
yond anything his elders could 
have warned him about. Turns 
out his barren world was, eons 
ago, a thriving civilization that 
fell victim to a campaign of or¬ 
ganized genocide by a race of 
merciless invaders, the Psych¬ 
los. Dispersing their air-borne 


extermination drones around 
the Earth, the aliens reduced hu¬ 
manity to a handful of cowering 
primitives huddling in caves. 
The Psychlos—less a band of 
warlike conquerors than a soci¬ 
ety of back-stabbing, bottom- 
line-oriented bureaucrats—sub¬ 
sequently settled in to exploit 
the planet's resources for all 
they were worth. 

Exploring the ruins of Den¬ 
ver, Jonnie stumbles upon and is 
taken prisoner by Tcrl, an egotis¬ 
tical Psychlo security officer 
who has his own plans for the 
remnants of humanity. Turns out 
that Earth is something of the 
butt-end of the Psychlo holdings, 
and that an assignment there is a 
virtual death-sentenee for the ca¬ 
reer of any ambitious, status¬ 
conscious alien. Determined to 
break through the glass ceiling, 
Tcrl plans to use Jonnie and his 
village-mates to loot a vein of 
gold he’s found in the moun¬ 
tains. Brought back to the Psych¬ 
lo bio-dome, Jonnie is given a 
crash-course in his species’ past 
via the “learning machine,” a 
sort of esper-powered CD play¬ 
er, and simultaneously becomes 
acquainted with the present bru¬ 
talities of Psychlo society via his 
captor (Tcrl lovingly calls his 
prisoner, “Rat Brain”). Slowly 
becoming aware that his own fu¬ 
ture and that of his species is 
gravely imperiled in the hands of 
these sadistic invaders, Jonnie 
resolves not only to escape from 
his warder, but to see the com¬ 
plete annihilation of the Psychlo 
presence on Earth. 

While bits of Scientologist 
theology peep through Battle¬ 
field Earth's plotting—Jonnie’s 
dramatic arc mirrors the path 
that Scientologists say humans 
must travel to escape the in¬ 
stinctual dictates of their “reac¬ 
tive minds,” while the Psychlos 
are named to clearly reflect the 
religion's antipathy towards the 
field of psychiatry—the book is 


19 


























John Travolta 

The star on turning producer, using his clout to get 
Hubbard's vision on the screen and cop a plum role . 


By Dan Persons 

Stardom docs have its privileges, but 
as BATTLEFIELD EARTH star and pro¬ 
ducer John Travolta discovered while 
portraying the Psychlo buddic Terl, it al¬ 
so helps to have co-star (and fellow vil¬ 
lain) Forest Whitaker’s makeup team. 

“Forest Whitaker had the same [pros¬ 
thetic! apparatus as L" the actor ex¬ 
plained. “It’s this extended head that 
goes about a little over a foot high, and 
goes back and shows some skull. And 
then there are the face applications: eye¬ 
brows, and a Fu Manchu kind of beard. 
All this was very time-consuming to ap¬ 
ply and blend — on a good day it was 
about three hours, on a not-so-good day, 
when I had to take breaks to go to the 
bathroom or eat, it was four. Normally, 
this would not be tough, but my head- 
piece wasn't removable. It was attached 
so that I couldn't take a break, I couldn't 
get any air in there. 1 was suffering quite 
a bit. 

“One day, I'm sitting on the set, and 
Forrest was there with (the makeup) re¬ 
moved. I looked at him and said. 'What 
the hell? How did that happen?* He had 
begged his makeup people over the week¬ 
end to figure out a way of cutting it off and 
putting a clamp thing on, where in between 
takes he could lake it off. I went to my 
makeup and hair people and said, ‘What’s 
going on, here? Why does he have that and 
I don't? Get to the drawing board, ask his 
people, do whatever you have to do, but I 
would love to be able to remove this be¬ 
tween takes.' Needless to say, they felt very 
embarrassed and they did a big pow-wow 
with his people, and then five days later I 
had the removable prosthetic, which was so 
thrilling. I just felt better about everything." 

In fact, there’s a lot that Travolta admits 
to feeling good about these days, primarily 
the fact that he's a top-line actor who has 
accumulated enough clout to garner studio 
backing for his long-dreamed-of adaptation 
of L. Ron Hubbard’s epic novel. “It’s been 



Happy Days: top-line actor Travolta finally accumulated 
enough clout to get his long dreamed-of adaptation of L. 
R. Hubbard’s science fiction epic before the cameras. 


many, many years in the making," the ac¬ 
tor/producer admitted. “When I first wanted 
to make it into a movie, we could not get a 
script that was viable. Mind you, it’s diffi¬ 
cult to capture the complexities of a novel 
into a screenplay in any case, but to tackle a 
one-thousand page book and try to capture 
all of it was impossible. The next best thing 
was to try to tackle half of it. 

“I think there was upwards of, like, ten 
drafts. Finally, we got it right after all those 
years. Simultaneously, I was in a position in 
Hollywood where I could use the power I 
have now to move it along, where earlier, 
even if we had gotten a script that was 
great, I don't know if I'd have had the clout 
to get it made." 

This, in and of itself, isn’t a new story in 
Hollywood. Nor is it unknown for the actor 
who sets the wheels in motion for a particu¬ 


lar project to also cast himself as the dar¬ 
ing hero who sets everything to right on¬ 
screen. Here’s where Travolta surprised 
everybody, choosing instead to play the 
scheming, avaricious Psychlo security 
officer Terl, the prime tormentor of BAT- 
TLEFIELD’s hero Jonnic Tyler, played 
by Barry Pepper. “I’ve always had this 
theory about the characters that actors 
play," said the actor about his distinctly 
Travoltacsque knack of appearing at 
home on-screen whether his character is 
seeking the betterment of humanity or 
the destruction of all that is pure and 
good. “Actors are under this impression 
that you have to like your character. I 
never feel tike you have to like your 
character. I think that you have to make 
your character entertaining. If you can 
find a way of being entertaining with 
your character, then already you’ve 
solved whether people like you. All peo¬ 
ple have to do is like watching it, they 
don't have to like the person and what he 
does. There’s a lot of false data on how to 
create a character, and 1 just found it’s 
very simple: what is the common denom¬ 
inator of all successful characters, 
whether they’re evil or not? It’s some¬ 
one's take on it, rather than the actions of 
the character. 

“Thai’s the take I took with Terl. He’s 
doing the most wicked things that any crea¬ 
ture could do. He’s an alien, so he gets 
away with it a little bit more, but more than 
that, he’s so off-thc-money in some ways, 
his inhuman qualities arc so outrageous, 
that it’s funny. His inability to empathize is 
so off that you go, 'Oh my God. This is hi¬ 
larious!' 

“He’s a very theatrical character. I pur¬ 
posely made him that way. because I feel 
his arrogance. His sense of seniority is in¬ 
flated to no end, and he just plays it to the 
hilt. He's so full of himself, with his power 
and his manipulations and his blackmail 
and his evil ways. And he thinks it’s ad¬ 
mirable, it’s all inverted: he thinks these are 
really great qualities to have. It's more like 


20 




































it Hubbard said, ‘Remember: over¬ 
whelming suffering.’ That’s the feel¬ 
ing of BATTLEFIELD EARTH, and 
how out of that can come liber¬ 
ation. It’s dark versus light.” 



Rather than play the hero. Travolta surprised everyone by choosing the role of 
Terl, the avaricious Psychic Security Officer, reveling in evil's theatricality. 


a Shakespearean character in a 
way, because he’s got all this 
going on.” 

And while most actors work 
their whole lives for just one 
crack at limning Richard 111 . 
Travolta holds that BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH contains its 
own scenes of defining villainy. 
“I love all the bar scenes; I just 
think they’re very special. [Terl] 
has these discussions with a 
bartender, and 1 think they just 
capture this otherworldlincss, 
yet it’s reminiscent of things 
we’re familiar with." 

A long-time Scientologist, 
Travolta has become accus¬ 
tomed to questions about his 
perceived motives, but holds 
that people should not confuse 
the work of L. Ron Hubbard, 
Golden-Age author, with that of 
L. Ron Hubbard, personal-im¬ 
provement pioneer. 

•’Thafs probably going to be 
inevitable, because of the obvi¬ 
ous connection of the same 
writer. I’m expecting that there 
will be a lot of attempts to cor¬ 
relate it, but the success of the 
book was so big — five million 
copies, and it continues to be a 
best-seller — and the history of 
Hubbard as a science fiction 
writer is so prominent, that I'm 
hoping that the reality of that 
will just supplant that. His his¬ 
tory as a science fiction writer is 
way before Scientology and Di- 
anetics — he actually used his 


monies from the science fiction 
world to finance his philosophy, 
and the research into that phi¬ 
losophy. You guys know that, 
now I have to educate the rest of 
the journalists about that." 

But education, Travolta 
holds, is secondary. What is 
supposed to take precedence 
with BATTLEFIELD EARTH 
is a determination to deliver 
the summer thrills audiences 
have grown accustomed to, 
while blending in a character- 
based drama that’s all too rare 
in such efforts. Summing up 
the experience, Travolta said, 
“It’s amazing, really. I've nev¬ 
er really done this with any 
movie before; I’ve never spear¬ 
headed a film. I've had passion 
for the different movies l*ve 
done, when I said yes, but I ’vc 
never spearheaded a film that 
I’ve had a passion for. It’s 
meant so much to nie, because 
it’s been so long in the making, 
that it feels really great. It’s a 
new feeling for me, to be hon¬ 
est. 

“There was a lot of hard 
work and a lot of people 
putting their best foot for¬ 
ward — absolute best foot for¬ 
ward. And we got something 
done. We got a great product, 
one that we’re all very proud 
of. and one that I think will re¬ 
ally entertain people. 1 think 
we’ve always wanted to be 
honorable to the book. ’’ 


hardly holy writ. Long-winded 
in places, the novel still sug¬ 
gests that Hubbard relished the 
return to his Golden Age past. 
More importantly, in the juicy 
war-of-wills between Terl and 
Jonnie and the battle scenes that 
saw a small band of humans 
struggling against overwhelm¬ 
ing odds, there was certainly 
enough potential for a rip-roar¬ 
ing. summer film. 

Enter John Travolta. A pas¬ 
sionate Scientologist since his 
introduction to the religion on 
the set of THE DEVIL'S RAIN, 
the actor had long sought to 
bring Battlefield to the screen. 
As far back as ten years ago, he 
was shopping the project around, 
eventually bringing in screen¬ 
writer Corey Mandell to adapt 
the first half of the book. It was¬ 
n’t until the advent of PULP 
FICTION and the subsequent 
cancellation of a project meant 
to shoot in the summer of 1999 
that the actor found himself with 
enough clout and sufficient time 
to finally tackle the project. 

Warners and Morgan Creek 
knew a good thing when they 
saw it. They gave Travolta and 
Franchise Pictures co-producers 
Elic Samaha and Jonathan 
Kranc (with Andrew Stevens 
and Don Carmody taking exec¬ 
utive producer roles) the green 
light, with one proviso: deliver 
$10(1 million plus of science fic¬ 
tion thrills for a budget marked¬ 
ly less than that magical, nine- 
figure mark (rumored to actual¬ 
ly be about $80 million). 

For reasons of economy, 
the production chose to shoot 
in Montreal, a city with its 
own, thriving film industry, 
one well-suited to BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH’S requisite pen¬ 
ny-pinching. Onto an interna¬ 
tional mix of high-level produc¬ 
tion personnel—Travolta don¬ 
ning the elevator skull-cap and 
platform boots of the avari¬ 
cious, seven-foot tall Terl (the 
actor having decided that he 
was too old to play the good- 


guy this time, and perhaps also 
realizing that the crafty, para¬ 
noid Psychlo was the meatier 
role); Canadian-born Barry 
Pepper punking up the part of 
hero Jonnie; Forest Whitaker 
waxing obsequious as Terl's as¬ 
sistant Kcr; and, behind the 
scenes, Roger Christian taking 
the director's chair; director of 
photography Giles Nultgens be¬ 
hind the camera; and Patrick 
Tatopoulos at the drawing board 
for the rare, triple-threat role of 
production, costume, and crea¬ 
ture designer—would be lay¬ 
ered a largely Canadian produc¬ 
tion team getting its first brush 
with high-ticket, tent-pole film- 
making. 

The Long Poiat Military 
Base, located on the outskirts of 
Montreal, has hosted the produc¬ 
tion. Amongst the various bits 
and pieces that had to be fabricat¬ 
ed by set decorator Anne Galea 
wholesale from humble. Earthly 
materials was the full-size Mark 
II mock-up (built in the base's 
parking lot and subject, no doubt, 
to civilian speculation on how far 

Sabine Karsenti as Chrissy, among 

the humans enslaved by the 

PsyChios who rise up to fight bach. 



21 
















Roger Christian 


The STAR WARS veteran on directing 
the first of a planned Hubbard trilogy. 


By Dan Persons 

Set decorator of STAR 
WARS, second unit director 
of THE PHANTOM MEN* 
ACE. and a director in his 
own right with credits such 
as NOSTRADAMUS, Roger 
Christian has television, in 
BATTLEFIELD EARTH, the 
biggest challenge of his ca¬ 
reer. Christian marshalled 
this big-budget production in 
Montreal, which is standing 
in for the ruins of Denver. 
“We’re in new territory,” said 
Christian. “Nothing like this 
has been made in Montreal, 
ever. We found the locations 
that work; quite unique loca¬ 
tions, actually. 

“[We’re shooting] here, 
and about four hours out in the 
mountains, where we went for 
the primitive beginning of the 
movie, where Jonnie’s tribe lives. 
Apart from that and certain 
points where they’re mining gold 
in deep ravines, it’s all here. 

“It was terrible weather the 
first week of shooting, but it 
worked for us because they’ve 
got primitive skins and they live 
in caves and we were doing love 
scenes and big action scenes. 
Rather than being a kind of sun¬ 
ny, happy world, it needed to be 
pretty grim. And it fused all the 
costumes, the look of the film; it 
made it much stronger. So in a 
way we welcomed it, we just 
shot through it.” 

When Christian wasn't con¬ 
tending with the elements, he 
was back in the editing room, 
making sure that the film—be¬ 
ing cut even as the shoot contin¬ 
ued—not only flowed, but met 
the approval of BATTLEFIELD 



Christian directs In Montreal, from STAR 
WARS set decorator to PHANTOM MENACE 
second unit director, to big-budget auteur. 

co-star and co-producer John 
Travolta. “We’re all totally, 
completely in tune, with one vi¬ 
sion. It’s amazing. Our instincts 
are identical. The journey has 
been one of complete harmony, 
“John is cutting with us. I 
wanted him to—he’s in the cut¬ 
ting room helping to fine-cut as 
we go. John, the editor and I 
have the same agenda. The 
scenes are just getting better 
and better as we do it. [Travol¬ 
ta’s] eye comes in and then 
mine comes in—John is a very 
intelligent and very thoughtful 
human being; nothing that he 
does is borne out of ego. He’s 
just serving the film, serving 
what's right. He has such a 
clear understanding of it—and 
it’s matched by our own under¬ 
standing of it—that it’s made it 
possible for us to do this huge 
movie. His contribution to this 


is enormous, absolutely 
enormous—he’s got a pas¬ 
sion for it; it is one of his fa¬ 
vorite things. And it’s infec¬ 
tious to everyone. He’s lov¬ 
ing it; he’s having such a 
great time.” 

That’s probably a good 
thing, because Christian is al¬ 
ready making plans for the 
BATTLEFIELD EARTH se¬ 
quel: “That goes even bigger, 
because Robert the Fox 
conies thumping in and then 
war is raging on Earth. And 
then about 18 alien races 
come down as well, challeng¬ 
ing and posturing and wanti¬ 
ng, because Earth is now free. 
Plus a human has learned the 
secret of teleportation, and 
they can't quite figure out 
how that’s happened—tele¬ 
portation is the power of the 
universe; if you can shift goods 
between planets, you’ve got the 
power. It’s only been the Psych- 
los who'vc had it, now' a human 
being’s done it, and there are a 
lot of underpinnings, deep, deep 
stuff there, 

"There’s a lot of philosophy 
that comes in—it’s all set up in 
[the first film]. It’s only on a 
simple level, this first one, but it 
comes into the second one. 
There’s huge action in the sec¬ 
ond one, but Jonnie also learns 
how to be...the Dalai Lama, if 
you like. There might be two 
more [sequels], there’s a lot to 
go. There’s a gigantic sequence 
in the book that is just amazing 
and that would start the next 
movie, and that’s quite a big se¬ 
quence. So it may be enough to 
go through on three of them. 
There are very interesting as¬ 
pects of it to come.” 


the military had advanced with 
aviation technology); office 
suites fit for a Psychlo (including 
four mega-sized chairs and what 
Galea referred to as a “funky 
desk that worked on steam and 
dripped oil”); and an organic, 
egg-like learning chamber with a 
weird, retro-industrial mental-tap 
headset—the product of a previ¬ 
ously exterminated race known 
as the Synchlos (or. depending 
on who you asked, the C'linkos. 
the Glinkos, or the Synchos— 
anything other than the less salu¬ 
tary “Chinkos” used in the nov¬ 
el). “It descended and opened 
and is completely engineered 
from found parts,” said Galea of 
the automated mental jack. 
“Pieces of lights and gears and 
all kinds of things that you'd 
never recognize. It was really a 
work of love.” 

And then there was the 
menagerie. What in the book 
was described as an abandoned, 
open-air cage with an algae-en- 
crusted pool used to imprison 
the lone Jonnie, became in the 
film a mammoth, vaulting prison 
with oversize statuary and vast, 
multi-level cages to imprison 
hoards of human slave labor. 
Said art director Oana Bogdan. 
“The idea was that you’d see the 
humans so small and up high in 
the air. It’s trying to give you the 
feel of the London Zoo, or some¬ 
thing that’s already existing, but 
it's also just the contrast: we as 
humans used to put animals in 
cages, now the Psychlos have 
put us in the cages. 

“It’s one of the best sets," con¬ 
cluded Bogdan. “It's one of the 
places that's outside the [ Psychic j 
dome, so everywhere that you're 
outside the dome, there's green 
and breezes and plants invading 
the structures. When you're in¬ 
side the dome, because it's filled 
with the Psychlo gas, there’s no 
greenery at all. It's all pretty 
much dead, brown, dying, con¬ 
crete." That contrast can also be 
seen clearly in the film’s other, 
major set: ierl’s office, a dingy, 
grey concrete redoubt built to 
suggest that the aliens have set up 
shop in the caverns of a mam¬ 
moth dam. Rimmed with stories- 
high arches and dangling chains, 
the space resembles nothing so 
much as a dungeon as conceived 
by a joint collaboration between 
the Marquis DcSadc and the Ten¬ 
nessee Valley Authority. 

BATTLEFIELD EARTH’S 


22 




































was in a position in Hollywood 
where I could use the power I 
have now to move it along, where 
earlier, I don’t know if I’d have had 
the clout to get it made.” 


main sets were located in a giant 
warehouse facility on the base 
(the main feature of which was a 
giant sign with the intriguing 
legend: “If you hear the bell 
ring, go immediately to the ra¬ 
tion depot. Someone is trapped 
in one of the freezers." Guess 
real soldiers don't use inside 
latches.) Step through a door 
and walk down a short corridor, 
and you wind up in design cen¬ 
tral. a plain room plastered prac¬ 
tically floor-to-ceiling w ith con¬ 
cept drawings, photo collages, 
character designs. On one wall 
are images of a ravaged shop¬ 
ping mall (the human escapees 
who stumble upon this site mis¬ 
take its mannequins for victims 
of Psychlo genocide), on anoth¬ 
er is the design for a suitably 
grungy Psychlo bar. complete 
with gaming tables and a dis¬ 
penser for the all-important Ker- 
bango (BATTLEFIELD’S ono¬ 
matopoeic moniker for the Psv- 
chlo beverage of choice). 

On the other side of this wall 
stands the office of designer 
Patrick Tatopoulos. It’s been a 
busy few years for Tatopoulos, 
w hat with working on creature 
designs not only for STUART 
LITTLE, but on David Twohy's 
startlingly good PITCH BLACK 
and Waller Hill’s SUPERNOVA. 
Nothing, though, could match up 
with the workload for BATTLE¬ 


FIELD EARTH. “What’s excit¬ 
ing to me," said the designer, "is 
when you have a chance to cre¬ 
ate a world and its inhabitants. 
The fact that we have to create 
characters that would fit their 
technology was the most inter¬ 
esting part. The very beginning 
is always the most fun; when I sit 
dow n in front of a piece of paper 
and sketch. Then the headaches 
start. We start to realize we’ve 
got a budget lo meet, we’ve got 
to make it work. That’s the chal¬ 
lenge part of the job. 

“Usually, [at the start], I 
never think budget. Even if I 
have a budget. I don’t think 
budget. I think that's a big mis¬ 
take. If you take a movie know¬ 
ing that it's a $2(1 million movie 
and you design a $20 million 
movie, then you're going to 
have a $20 million movie. If 
you don't care and just design 
something great and then try to 
make it work, you go a little 
further.” 

oing a little further 
was Tatopoulos' 
eternal quest on 
BATTLEFIELD 
EARTH. With his 
responsibilities extending be¬ 
yond design of the creatures 
themselves, he began thinking 
of the world the Psychlos had 
built for themselves: “We’re 



Walk softly and carry a big stick: Travolta as Terl and Forrest Whitaker as Ker. 
The size of the Psychlo codpiece proved to be a design bone of contention. 




A dead Psychlo guard gets a makeup touch-up on the set during filming. 
Massive boots were used to add stature to the aliens, making walking difficult. 


talking about a group of people 
who, in our way of thinking, 
have no aesthetic whatsoever; 
they just do practical stuff. But 
just doing practical stuff can be 
interesting or it can be extreme¬ 
ly boring. What I thought would 
he interesting was to make all 
their stuff, all their work, very 
square—angles and things—but 
when you look at the full piece 
it’s actually quite organic. With 
the choreographed gears and 
stuff, it starts looking very or¬ 
ganic. like a bug. That dictated 
the entire Psychlo world. 

“I’m a very free-handed guy. 
I don't try to work the technical 
things. I just let go, completely. 
On every design I've done on 
every show, the first phase has 
lo be like that: Don’t think too 
hard, just let your mind go. 

“Of course, wc knew they 
were seven, eight-feet tall. We 


knew they were very military, 
very stiff. Those things were the 
key elements for me. The de¬ 
signs which are typically Psych¬ 
lo are reminiscent of the Second 
World War, Nazi stuff. There’s a 
lot of that in there, actually.” 

Tatopoulos' original concep¬ 
tion of the Psychlos got modi¬ 
fied by Christian and Travolta. 
“When I designed it. I did a pro¬ 
file version of [the aliens]. The 
first drawing looked like this 
guy with a huge forehead, but 
there was no forehead, just hair. 
It looked interesting; it looked 
alien with the hair and that huge 
forehead going back. The first 
question from Roger Christian 
and even John was: are people 
going to be able to understand 
that there is a forehead under¬ 
neath; it’s not just a cool hair¬ 
cut. In my mind, even today. I 
like the hair better than showing 


23 









Canadian actor Barry Pepper as Hubbard’s hero. Jonnle "Goodboy " Tyler, 
enlightened to humanity's enslavement by the learning machine, with Ker. 


the forehead. I was worried 
about Klingons, the STAR 
I REK stuff. I don’t think it 
turned out that way. hut that 
was something that was re¬ 
quested. and I said. ‘Okay, 
we’re going to spread the hair.” 

When Tatopoulos wasn’t de¬ 
bating hairstyles, he was hashing 
over footwear; more specifically, 
how you rig boots to render nor¬ 
mal-sized humans into super¬ 
deluxe-sized Psychlos. "The first 
thought w as not to consider any 
budget issue, and wc thought 
we’d do CGI, create a cool-look¬ 
ing character which would then 
be either C’til or blue-screen and 
composited as a separate ele¬ 
ment into the picture. Then we 
could have 10 foot, 20 foot 
|aliens] or whatever we wanted 
to do. When we realized we 
couldn't gi) that route, we had to 
make them practical. So the size 
boost changed from ten feet to 
seven. Why seven feet? Because 
the proportion of the body can 
only be stretched so much w ith- 
out making it look strange. I 
think we went to the very limit 
by just making a strap-on exten¬ 
sion. Humans had to walk on 
these extensions. So most of the 
actors ended up being a foot 
taller than they were, and that’s 
w hy we looked for some guys 
who looked alien to begin with. 
You gel a guy who’s seven-feet 
tall, now he can he cighl-fcct 
tall. Meanwhile, people like 

24 


John Travolta, could be maybe 
smaller. This was dictated by the 
size of the lead actors, who arc 
usually smaller than some gener¬ 
ic extra. Wc decided that the big 
guys are the most creature-like; 
they’re the heavy-labor guys. 
The more refined they are, the 
smaller they are. and the more 
human they look." 

Tatopoulos was quick to 
point out that—despite persis¬ 
tent rumors that the film's top 
Psvchlo had encountered some 
mobility difficulties in his lift- 
shoes—it wasn’t necessarily 
(rue that the smaller you were, 
the harder you fell. “Nobody re¬ 
ally fell.” said Tatopolous, 
“Some people couldn’t walk 
properly. What would happen 
w ith those boots, being quite 
heavy, was that you had more of 
hard time lifting them than actu¬ 
ally falling. You were pretty sta¬ 
ble, overall. I would say it took 
a bit more time to develop the 
actual choreography and have 
the guys train with the boots 


(<The beginning is always the most 
fun, when I sit down in front of a 
piece of paper and sketch. Then 
the headaches start. We start to re¬ 
alize we have a budget to meet.” 


and deal with the weight of 
them. That was more our issue 
than actually falling." 

In fact. Tatopoulos held that 
not only did John Travolta lake 
his newborn stature in stride 
(get it?), the actor also dared to 
venture where others feared to 
tread (okay. I'll stop now). 
"When John came in, suddenly 
I realized that when you have a 
real actor in those boots, some¬ 
thing else happens. He’s been 
dancing for years; when he 
started to move, he created 
movement that was very differ¬ 
ent from the stunt guys.” 

When Travolta's attention 
then turned upward, to the Psy- 
chlo visage, it was to put a simi¬ 
larly distinct stamp on the de¬ 
sign. Said Tatopoulos, "The de¬ 
sign I did. he loved. Then wc 
started to apply it to his features, 
and we worked on it. It w as actu¬ 
ally pretty easy all the time, but 
the thing ts that we kept develop¬ 
ing it. The thing that you see on 
film came from the very strong 
involvement of John. We devel¬ 
oped it together: the hair change, 
making it more like dreadlocks. 
The look that you have of John 
on screen comes by way of his 
|direction], it’s part of creating 
his ow'ii character.” 

Tatopoulos, though, does take 
credit for one unique, and quite 
Itteral, wrinkle in the Tcrl cos¬ 
tume: the alien’s prodigious cod¬ 


piece. Acknowledging that (he 
dimensions of this leather-en¬ 
cased member would be enough 
to inspire Catherine the Great to 
skip the stables for a night, the 
designer also held that biological 
consistency required the final 
product. "The codpiece started 
on the original drawing, then it 
became [bigger]. Proportionally 
speaking, it was a very interest¬ 
ing thing: John was wearing the 
costume without the boots, and 
this thing was massive. He said. 
‘I don’t think it’s working,* and I 
said. ‘Put the boots on. we’ll 
see.’ He put the boots on, and 
everything worked. 

"It’s really very animal-like. 
If you’re doing a big beast, 
something realty powerful, and 
you give him nothing there, 
then it’s an issue. So wc kept 
pushing it, pushing it. Seeing it 
in the movie, though, it doesn't 
become an issue. If this was too 
small, it would attract as much 
attention as if it was too big, I 
think it blends with the charac¬ 
ter, that kind of beast-like, 
Aryan monster." 

ot everyone in the 
BATTLEFIELD 
EARTH crew' was 
worrying about the 
relative dimensions 
of alien phalluscs (and w'ere 
probably glad lor it, too). A few' 
steps from Tatopoulos’ office. 



Building the ruins of Denver at Long Point Military Base, outside Montreal, for 
green screen effects filming of rebel Harrier jet attacks on the Psychlos (inset). 














graphic artist Jean Francois 
Mignault labored over a com¬ 
puter rig, whipping up pre-visu¬ 
alizations of sequences, set¬ 
tings, and modclwork for the 
edification and enlightenment 
of everyone from the director to 
the DP to the editor. Patrick 
Tatopouios had originally hired 
Mignault as an illustrator, hut 
had changed his mind and de¬ 
cided to go with another artist. 
When director Roger Christian 
got a look at some of Mignault’s 
computer animation, he decided 
to give BATTLEFIELD’s “pre- 
viz” suite to the Canadian artist. 

Mignault slid a cassette into 
a VC'R. On a monitor screen, a 
preliminary version of the film's 
finale flashed to life; an amal¬ 
gam of computer-generated fly¬ 
bys, static storyboard images, 
and hits and pieces culled from 
other movies. In rapid sequence, 
we saw Will Smith from INDE¬ 
PENDENCE DAY, Sylvester 
Stallone from RAM BO, Mark 
Hamill from RETURN OF THE 
JEDI We got a sense of driving 
action, an appreciation of how 
cutting will work to make the 
ending as kick-ass as possible. 
Such work has gone to a gener¬ 
ally appreciative audience: one 
special effects house used 
Mignault's rough of a MA- 
TRIX-like tracer-bullet effect to 
create the finished footage; a he¬ 
licopter pilot employed pre-viz's 
of a Colorado mountain fly-by 
to understand the movements 
needed for the background 
plates being shot; and DP Giles 
Nuttgcns discovered through 
Mignault's mock-up of the tele¬ 
portation site (hat the elements 
as originally laid out wouldn't 
play on-screen. 

The dingy facade of an actu¬ 
al, working steel mill used as 
stand-in for the outer limit of 
the Psychlo dome. A concrete 
platform had been laid out, 
marked with obscure, alien hi¬ 
eroglyphs and flanked by two 
cylindrical towers. Crew mem- 
bers worked to assemble a life- 
size version of the Mark II, not 
far from the control hunker that 
overlooked the entire site. 

This was the Psychlo tele¬ 
portation platform. In the film, 
it stands just outside the Psych¬ 
lo dome (indeed, a massive, 
alien-sized doorway appended 
to the mill is the same one used 
for Terl’s office—more budget- 
shaving recycling). It was also 




PATRICK TATOPOULOS 

The production, costume and creature 
designer on nailing Hubbard's vision. 



By Dan Persons 

It’s not often you get to see 
one person canying the titles of 
production, costume, and crea¬ 
ture designer on a single film. 
In fact, according to BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH'S Patrick Taio- 
poulos, you’ve never seen that 
particular credit in an American 
film. “Truly, in America, it's 
never happened, period. 

“But just to be a bit more 
modest about it, in Europe, it's 
been done before. I'm a huge 
fan of the Italian moviemaking 
school. At the time of Fellini, 
for example, the designer was 
one guy designing sets and cos¬ 
tumes and potentially the took 
of the characters as well — 
we're talking makeup. He was¬ 
n't necessarily applying make¬ 
up and going that far, but he 
was creating the look. The best 
reason for someone to be the 
only designer on a picture is to 
improve the chances of putting 
down on paper the vision of a 
director.” 

Directors have been relying 
on Tatopouios' unique vision 
for a healthy portion of the 
nineties. It was his production 
and creature designs that 
caught the public’s imagination 
in such films as Roland Em¬ 
merich's INDEPENDENCE 
DAY and Alex Proyas’ DARK 
CITY. And it’s those same tal¬ 
ents that have been set to work 
creating the ravaged Earth of 
several millennia hence and its 
alien conquerors in BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH. “It's the per¬ 
fect script for a designer," said 
Tatopouios. “There arc so many 
layers, so many things going on 
in this movie, that 1 thought it 


was very rich in design. 

From the beginning, of 
course, Tatopouios had little 
more than a piece of paper to 
resort to, and a design instinct 
that traces its roots back to the 
designer’s time as a student in 
Parisian art schools. “I have... 
well, I don't know if it's a 
French approach, but it’s an 
approach that's based on the 
aesthetic. There’s a designer 
called Sid Mead, he has a ten¬ 


dency to come up with 
shapes — he has this quick, 
sketchy thing where he comes 
up with an interesting shape 
that he likes, and then works 
with it. My approach is more 
towards that. 1 develop some¬ 
thing that looks interesting, 
and say, ‘Now, let's make this 
thing work.’ So once you’ve 
got the object, the element that 
you like, you come back to it 
and you make it functional. 


25 
































Bui the first phase is to come 
up with something that sur- 
prises people, otherwise you 
have a tendency to repeat 
yourself. 

"You need to come up with a 
signature first, a flavor. When I 
start designing a movie, I don't 
start with little sketches for 
every set. What I do is design 
maybe one object for the 
movie. I draw it, and in this ob¬ 
ject, if it works, you can deter¬ 
mine what a lot of the movie 
will look like, texture-wise. 
STARGATE, for example, the 
look of the warriors — I de¬ 
signed their helmets — and the 
texture of their helmets and the 
color ended up being the refer¬ 
ence for doing the sets. It was 
the look that created the rest of 
the stuff. I don't apply myself 
everywhere when I start de¬ 
signing, 1 grab an object which 
seems to be a key object — 

Conferring on set with art director 

Oana Bogdan, a regular design 

collaborator since STARGATE. 


could be a spacecraft or any¬ 
thing. I design that, get a flavor, 
and then suddenly there’s a lan¬ 
guage that develops there, and 
that language is something that 
you can now apply every¬ 
where.” 

In the case of BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH, though, Tato- 
poulos forewent using some¬ 
thing as exotic as an interplane¬ 
tary spacecraft for his inspira¬ 
tion. settling instead on some¬ 
thing a little more prosaic. "It 
was a portion of [the Psychlos] 
furniture. There was a desk that 
they use in the movie that was a 
standard thing that’s a part of 
their technology and is actually 
such an important thing. That 
thing basically determined 
everything. 

"We’re not talking about a 
standard desk that you'd find 
in an Earth office. It’s some¬ 
thing very special. It’s a huge 
object, and there were enough 
shapes and elements in it — 
there were lights, there were 
screens — that it would help 
you to understand their tech¬ 
nology, So there’s this tech¬ 
nology and around that tech¬ 
nology is a shell, and that shell 
has a texture as well. So you 
get the texture, you get the 
type of technology, you get the 
lighting — you get the cultural 
elements that they use. And 
that desk could now become 
something else; it could be¬ 
come a spacecraft or a wall 
panel.” 

Realizing he may have over¬ 
simplified his own development 



process, Tatopoulos quickly 
added. "Don’t think that every¬ 
thing looks like a desk.” 

Because of Canadian labor 
law mandating (he use of local 
talent, the designer found him¬ 
self in Montreal without the 
bulk of his regular staff. "The 
only person I brought was my 
art director, Oana Bogdan.” he 
said. “She’s been working with 
me pretty much since STAR- 
GATE. She’s fantastic, the 
kind of person you have with 
you who becomes your right 
hand. My creature shop did the 
actual makeup effects for the 
movie, but again it was the sit¬ 
uation where I could only keep 
one of my guys to supervise 
the makeup effects and apply 
them on John Travolta. The 
rest of the crew was actually 
hired at the last minute in 
Montreal. Fantastic people, no 
argument—the stuff came out 
great,” 

Tatopoulos has since moved 
on, although he is loathe to re¬ 
veal what his next project 
might be. (“It’s the early 
stages of something that could 
be very, very big...Something 
with people I have worked 
with before,” is about the only 
him he'll drop.) Beyond that, 
though, the designer admitted 
that he's not contemplating 
surrendering his double-hy¬ 
phenate status anytime soon, 
and that he's in fact toying 
with the thought of what his 
expanded responsibilities 
might lead to. 

"For me to go back it would 


have to be a project that I’m dy¬ 
ing to do — for example, the 
sets, or I'm dying to do the 
creatures for. Right now, I’m 
going to have to keep convinc¬ 
ing people that I can do it —it’s 
not that anyone’s been con¬ 
vinced yet; people have to see 
the movie to see if someone can 
handle all of that. It’s not yet the 
situation where I can say I’ll be 
able to do it the way 1 want to 
do it. 

"If there is a world to cre¬ 
ate, that’s what I’m interested 
in. I'm not interested in just 
makeup effects* per se—that’s 
not what I want to do. I will 
never be like Stan Winston. 
I’ll never be Rick Baker. I 
don’t want to be those guys. I 
admire them so much, but I 
don’t want to try to match 
them. My job is somcw'here 
else, and if it leads me to a 
certain extent to directing... 
you know, the more tasks you 
take, the more you show you 
want to have control over the 
look and what’s happening in 
a movie. That’s probably 
where I’m going. I wasn’t 
very conscious of that, but I 
think it's taking me slowly 
there. We all think we have 
something to say, and the 
more tools you're given to say 
something and to help some¬ 
one, the more you want to 
have the chance to do more, to 
pul something together that's 
your piece. 

"The joy is that it’s a world 
of creation. That's what gets me 
excited.” 


26 












“[It’s a] fusion of ideas [and ef¬ 
fects]. Because I just finished the 
new STAR WARS, I have experience 
to pull off a film like this with a bud¬ 
get less than a studio movie.” 



Travolta as the 7-foot Terl with wife Kelly Preston In a cameo as Terl's Psychlo 
secretary. Noted Travolta, ’’We've got a great product that will entertain people." 


where a fair chunk of the film’s 
finale would take place, which 
explains the pock-marking and 
blaster-burns that suggested the 
aftermath of a pitched battle. 
After shooting, the alien dome 
and miniature energy spheres 
will be matted in to complete 
the scene. 

irector Roger Chris¬ 
tian is no stranger to 
genre filmmaking, 
or to challenging 
production condi¬ 
tions. lie’s previously helmed 
projects as varied as STAR- 
SHIP. NOSTRADAMUS, and 
MASTERMINDS, and traces 
his STAR WARS resume as far 
back as his set decorator post on 
A NEW HOPE, all the way to 
his second-unit direction of 
THE PHANTOM MENACE. 
“My background,” the director 
said, “is very involved in spe¬ 
cial effects and blue screen and 
the kind of gritty reality that I 
put into NOSTRODAMUS. 
jit’s a) kind of fusion of idea 
[and effects.) Because I just fin¬ 
ished on the new STAR WARS, 
I have the experience to pull off 
a film like this with a budget 
that’s a lot less than a studio 
movie. That’s basically how [A 
NEW HOPE) was made—this 
is deja-vu to the first one." 

Taking on a project with far 
darker overtones than those 
from the Lucas universe, Christ¬ 
ian acknowledged his desire to 
stay true to L. Ron Hubbard's 
vision. “It was his idea that this 
would be the first of his books 
ever filmed," said Christian. 
“They gave me a very interest¬ 
ing piece that he had written to 
whomever w'as going to direct 
this. He said. Remember: over¬ 
whelming suffering.’ That’s the 
feeling of BATTLEFIELD 
EARTH, and how out of that 
can come liberation. It’s dark 
versus light, again. 

“It’s basically a very real 
world, quite funny, but funny by 
observation, not comedy—you 
observe the way that Psychlos 
treat humans, and by observa¬ 
tion you can laugh at (hat. Wc 
took the same route that STAR 
WARS lakes, if you like: the 
world is absolutely, one-hun¬ 
dred percent reality. It’s grim in 
places, nothing is that kind of 
comedy science fiction. Within 
our world are huge flying ships 
and domed cities, but it’s all 


practical. You can imagine that 
everything could work. We then 

established these Psychlos as 

* 

well, with their makeup and 
their prosthetics, and the look of 
them is quite frightening in 
places, but fun. It’s a gentle line 
to tread, but that’s where we’ve 
gone with it.” 

Travolta himself might not 
be treading so gentle a line w ith 
Terl. who may be destined to 
join the pantheon of the actor’s 
so-bad-they’re-good villain por¬ 
trayals. “He’s one of the 
screen’s great villains,” said 
Christian, maybe forgetting his 
own time with the grown-up 
Anakin. “They’re basically 
eight-foot, nine-foot high, and 
kind of beast-like. They’re hu¬ 
man beings without any social 
graces, without any redeeming 
qualities about them. Their 
pleasure is to torture, mentally 
and physically, themselves and 
other beings. They’ll always 
come up against each other, and 
then, once they’ve got |each 
other] down, they’ll put the 
hoot in; put the knife in and 
tw'ist it. It’s the way they oper¬ 
ate. 

“They're so unique that they 
leave you wanting more. We’re 
adding in escape scenes: 


they've domed the city of Den¬ 
ver over, because they can’t 
breath earth’s air; they need 
their own atmosphere. So we 
had a great opportunity to do 
something there with the Jonnie 
character. They’ve said, 'He’s 
so uncontrollable, just get rid of 
him.’ So they throw him into 
the domed city and they’re bet¬ 
ting on him. how long he’ll last 
until his lungs burst. This leads 
into a kind of huge, action 
scene as he’s running through 
the city and through a massive 
smelting plant, basically kind 
of dying as Psychlos are trying 
to get him.” 

Against this well-armed and 
technologically advanced ad¬ 
versary is pitched BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH'S Jonnie Tyler. 
As described by Christian—in 
terms that reference a bit of Sci¬ 
entologist theology—the hero’s 
voyage is as much spiritual as 
physical: “An extremely ap¬ 
pealing aspect of this is human 
beings discovering their past, 
which is in a way their future. 
Jonnie goes through the learn¬ 
ing machine, and he realizes 
what the truth is, and what the 
possibilities are. That in itself is 
something (hat heroes always 
understand at some point. You 


start out reactive to situations: 
you can go along with a situa¬ 
tion as it exists, or you can be¬ 
come active yourself, menially, 
in which case you take a pres¬ 
ence in your own destiny. He 
takes that giant leap: he can 
read, he's finding libraries 
where all of the truth resides, 
military bases underground that 
have survived because they’ve 
been sealed. It's led to this ter¬ 
rific kind of arc between these 
primitives who are being led by 
this man who's telling them that 
maps helped him to escape. 
They’re just chewing meat, not 
understanding what he's talking 
about, but they all slowly come 
through this learning curve, so 
the journey taking place drags 
you along.” 

Warners is no doubt hoping 
that the audience will not need 
to be dragged into the theater 
in the first place. BATTLE¬ 
FIELD EARTH hopes to lever¬ 
age the same pre-Memortal 
Day vibe that Universal's THE 
MUMMY enjoyed last year. 
(With the only other film open¬ 
ing May 12 being THE FLINT- 
STONES IN VIVA ROCK VE¬ 
GAS, the studio may well get 
its wish.) For director Christ¬ 
ian, the ride won't be worth the 
effort unless the audience con¬ 
nects with a genuine, human el¬ 
ement. “There’s no getting 
away from it, I think. That's 
what determines it—you have 
to have a kind of sense of 
growth in a human being. One 
of the big joys for me in the film 
is really related to that, very 
strongly. Jonnie has a group 
around him: Carlo and Nicky 
and Sammy and Mason and 
Hey wood. They go on this jour¬ 
ney together, with the rest of the 
people, and it’s become incredi¬ 
bly emotional. As they’ve 
learned about themselves, 
we've hud these really magical 
scenes between the characters. 
They’re very poignant; I was 
very pleased. The actors that 
we’ve managed to cast have 
brought this level to it. Human 
dilemma, human suffering, are- 
they-going-to-win? that always 
leads to a more interesting arc 
to follow. That’s very strong in 
this. 

“To me. this is what I'm so 
joyful about. It is totally charac¬ 
ter-driven. For a big sci-fi 
movie to have that at its core, 
that’s always a winner” 



27 











I 



Director Brian Levant on returning to 
Hanna-Barbera cartoonland as live action. 


By Frederick 
C . Szebin 

Re meet the reduxed Flint- 
stones lute this April in Brian 
Levant’s follow-up to his 1W4 
live action hit, that put flesh 
and blood to the Hanna- Bar- 
bera cartoon characters. Not 
only is there a new. younger 
cast portraying the Flintstones 
and Rubbles this time around, 
but we’re given the chance to 
see how these four pop culture 
icons met and fell in love in 
THE FLINTSTONES IN VI VA 
ROCK VEGAS, which details 
their meetings and romances, 
ending with the taking of pre¬ 
historic vows. 

For this prequel we are of¬ 
fered British actor Mark Addy 
(THE FULL MONTY) as Fred. 
Stephen Baldwin (BIODOME) 
as buddy Barney, THIRD 
ROCK FROM THE SUN’s 
Kristen Johnston as poor little 
rich girl Wilma Slaghoople, and 
ALLY MCBEAL’s Jane Kra- 
kowski as Betty O’Shale, Bar¬ 
ney’s future intended. Also fea¬ 
tured are Joan Collins as 
Wilma’s mother, taking over for 
the first film’s matriarch, Eliza¬ 
beth Taylor; Harvey Korman, a 
frequent voice contributor to the 
original animated series and the 
voice of the Dicta-Bird from the 
first live action film as Colonel 
Slaghoople, Wilma’s dottcring 
father, and in two roles is 
British thespian Alan Cumming 
first as The Great Gazoo, Fred 
and Barney’s alien genie, and 
Mick Jagged, leader of the rock 
band. The Stones. 

It’s been six years since the 
first film failed to wow critics. 



Recasting for a younger audience. THE FULL MONTY’S Mark Addy plays Fred 
Fllntstone (r) and Stephen Baldwin plays his prehistoric pal Barney Rubble. 


but did please the bubble gum 
set who dragged their parents to 
it. A sequel was always in the 
hearts and minds of director 
Levant, Universal Studios and 
Amblin Entertainment, but was 
not to be until the fortuitous 
40th anniversary of Bedrock’s 
finest this year. 

“The main problem was that 
we had a script the studio and 
Amblin liked,” said Bart 
Brown, VIVA ROCK VEGAS 
co-producer who worked his 
way up from producer Bruce 
Cohen’s (MOUSE HUNT) as¬ 
sistant on the first film. "There 
were thoughts that when it was 
written that we would bring 
back the original cast, and John 
Goodman specifically was not 
interested in doing another one. 
Although he enjoyed making 
the first film he felt he had 
done that, been there, and 
wanted to move on from that 
point. So we started looking in¬ 


to casting the next Fred Flint- 
stone, and, believe it or not, 
that's quite a feat. With many 
an actor who was interested, 
unless you could capture that 
essence, it was just a guy in a 
Fred costume. It became tricki¬ 
er than we thought to find 
someone who looked the age 
and the role. To replace John 
Goodman was tough because 
John was well-liked in that 
role. We thought what if we 
take a different approach and 
put together an ensemble cast 
that’s younger — maybe that 
would make it a little hipper to 
a wider audience — and tell the 
story about how they all met 
and fell in love. That gave us 
the liberties to go to a whole 
new group of people, and once 
we were able to go to a 
younger age group, it was still 
a challenge until Mark Addy — 
which sounded like such a ran¬ 
dom choice—had come up and 


read, and he just blew every¬ 
one away. He is the essence of 
Fred Flintstone and Jackie 
Gleason’s Ralph Cramden 
combined. He just brings that 
same charm in a very different 
way from THE FULL MON¬ 
TY. He just has something so 
incredibly endearing about his 
personality that he brings to 
the screen as Fred Flintstone. 
From the moment we had our 
first roundtable reading every¬ 
one just sat back in amazement 
at how he nailed the American 
back-east accent and, two; how 
he just won over everyone at 
the table. We were really very 
fortunate to get him." 

“We couldn’t be more 
thrilled,” added director Brian 
Levant on his chance to finally 
bring the Flintstones back to 
the live action realm. “What’s 
really been great is that we 
came back and everyone in¬ 
volved loved the first one and 
realty felt that it would have to 
be a totally different experience 
to do another one. We half- 
stumbled, half were guided by 
the comedy gods to a prequel, 
and once in our initial prequel 
discussion with Deborah Ka¬ 
plan and Harry Elfant, who 
wrote the script, wc asked what 
if we do a prequel; ‘What if we 
start with the wedding,’ and alt 
of a sudden they looked at each 
other, and I forget which one of 
them said, ‘What if we ended 
with the wedding?’ And out of 
that concept alt of a sudden wc 
had ourselves a big fun roman¬ 
tic comedy. What was Wilma’s 
story? Well, she was a very, 
very rich girl who runs away 
down into Bedrock and meets 


28 















size like two to three percent 
depending on the shot, but we 
really did get him virtually the 
same size and proportion as in 
the cartoon. Then there was the 
issue of his face. We were so 
fortunate to cast Alan Gum¬ 
ming. This guy is just unbe¬ 
lievable; he won the Tony 
Award for CABARET on 
Broadway, he’s doing Shake¬ 
speare, he’s in EYES WIDE 
SHUT, and we got him. He 
plays two roles in the film. 
Gazoo and Mick Jagged, leader 
of The Stones, and in both 
roles he's wearing very heavy 
prosthetics.” 

The Henson Creature Shop 
was the film’s overall effects 
designer. Noted Brown, “They 
would hand over the design and 
we would take those to Rhythm 
and Hues or the other effects 
houses, so we wanted to have a 
consistency in terms of overall 
look. They had come up with a 
look for the Great Gazoo, which 
we had signed off on prior to 
coming back up as a prequel. 
When we did come back up as a 
prequel Brian had spent more 
lime thinking about it and he 
had mentioned the fact that we 
were going through all this ef¬ 
fort again of taking a cartoon 
and bringing it to life, and he 
felt that in order to really do this 
character justice it really should 
be the same feeling, as opposed 
to making him a 3-D charac¬ 
ter, which is in a sense like 
keeping him animated. It 
would be wonderful to have 
the old-fashioned, good old 
performance from a live ac¬ 
tor, take that and recomposite 
him in a sense that can make 
him look only alien-like, so 
that there’s no way he can be 
human.” 

Aside from the green- 
faced alien genic, the Henson 
Creature Shop and Rhythm 
and Hues were called upon to 
give audiences a baby Dino, 
freshly hatched with the per¬ 
sonality of a frisky puppy. 


about to give up I had an idea 
when I saw my assistants play¬ 
ing with the Adobe Photoshop 
in the office. What we did was 
go over to wardrobe and get a 
helmet, a cape and some green 
tights and stuff, had a friend 
pose in it, took a still frame, put 
it in Photoshop and tried then to 
shrink and expand different ar- 
of his body until they ap- 


Joining Addy and Baldwin are THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN’S Kristen 
Johnston as Wilma (I) and ALLY Me BEAL's Jane Krakowskl as Betty, in a 
comedy prequel that tells how the couples met and wed in Rock Vegas. 


up with Betty O'Shale, who’s a 
roller skating waitress. (You try 
making roller skates without 
any boots! But we made a lot of 
'em!) Eventually they meet up 
with Fred and Barney. On the 
first date out, Fred is going out 
with Betty, not Wilma, and 
things get all aligned and we 
show how Wilma got her 
pearls, and where Dino came 
from, and we meet Fred’s rival 
for Wilma’s affections. Chip 
Rockefeller, played by Thomas 
Gibson." 

One member of the original 
cartoon’s cast missed the first 
time around was the magical 
alien. The Great Gazoo, stuck 
on a prehistoric Earth to help 
our two favorite dunder¬ 
heads, Fred and Barney, 
sometimes making their lives 
a little better, but usually 
complicating things royally. 
When Gazoo was added to 
the mix. they not only gained 
one of the more entertaining 
characters from the series, 
but one of the biggest techno¬ 
logical challenges the special 
effects house, Rhythm and 
Hues, ever took on. 

“At first,” said Levant, 
"we looked for something 
that would not be entirely a 


CG character. I liked the idea of 
interacting with somebody. 
That’s why in many cases we 
use puppets, not just for finan¬ 
cial reasons, but so the actors 
could be holding them, interact¬ 
ing with them. I think it’s just 
different than playing to things 
off screen. And so we tried the 
puppet/CG method, and it was 
very, very expensive and we 
didn’t want to lose Gazoo out of 
the movie. We knew during the 
first one that if we ever made 
another. Gazoo would have to 
be in it, and it was just a matter 
of how in the hell are we going 
to do this? As we were just 


proximaled the size of Gazoo’s 
proportions on the show, which 
means you have a head proba¬ 
bly three-limes normal size, and 
a torso from neck to where your 
legs start that is just smaller 
than the head. “Then the arms 
and legs were practically skele¬ 
tal, and very short with the huge 
feet. 

“We showed it to Rhythm 
and Hues and did a test against 
a blue screen with a man on a 
flying rig. We showed it to 
Steven Spielberg, who said, 
‘Smaller! Smaller!’ (Levant 
laughed!, and he was right. We 
had him too big. He changed 


Levant, a life-long Flintstones fan and collector who directed the original film for 
Steven Spielberg’s Amblln, rehearses a shot with Addy and Johnston. 


DIRECTOR BRIAN LEVANT 

“What's really been great is that we came back 
and everyone involved loved the first one and 
really felt that it would have to be a totally 
different experience to do another one.’* 


29 













CO-PRODUCER BART BROWN 

<<To replace John Goodman was tough because 
was well liked in that role. We thought what 
if we take a different approach and put an 
ensemble together that is younger.” 


About 20 CG Dino shots were 
created for wide angles, while 
most of him was fabricated by 
the Henson shop so that the ac¬ 
tors, once again, would have an 
on-set being to relate to, a full- 
bodied puppet that the actors 
not only got to hold but actually 
manipulate themselves (with 
help from facial servo operators 
off camera), rather than just the 
neck and hcad/CG body of the 
full grown Dino of the first 
film. A stunning Bronto-bridge, 
a Bronto-roller coaster (an im¬ 
age Levant got off the back of a 
box of Fruity Pebbles Cereal) 
and various small animal appli¬ 
ances also decorate the prehis¬ 
toric world of the Flintstones. 

Most of the film was shot in 
the 30-mile studio zone of 
southern California, including 
the old cowboy locations at 
Chatsworth, Rocky Peak State 
Park and Paramount Studio’s 
old movie ranch. One day each 
was spent at Vasquez Rocks, 
and Page, Arizona (for back¬ 
ground plates), and then it was 
back to the old quarry used in 


At the craps tables in Rock Vegas, 
the comedy conies complete with 
Ann Margret singing the title song. 



the first film. Preproduction 
took the better part of a vear 
through 1998 and 1999: the 
company shot for 68 days start¬ 
ing in mid-April 1999, then 
wrapped before August 8, 
which was the end of their blue 
screen work. Post-production 
took another six months, giving 
VIVA ROCK VEGAS quite an 
impressive schedule. Brian Wil¬ 
son and Tony Asher, collabora¬ 
tors on the legendary PET 
SOUNDS album, have con¬ 
tributed a song, and Ann-Mar- 
grock (Margret) herself has 
recorded a new version of VI¬ 
VA ROCK VEGAS for the 
soundtrack. Movie buffs will re¬ 
member that aside from appear- 
ing in the original FLINT- 
STONES cartoon (she proudly 
displays an animation cel of 
herself in her home to mark the 
occasion), the versatile redhead 
also co-starred with Elvis Pres¬ 
ley in VIVA LAS VEGAS back 
in the 1960s. The cinematic pro¬ 
ceedings wrap-up with a grand 
finale, which includes a perfor¬ 
mance by Mick Jagged and the 
Stones, with everyone (includ¬ 
ing William Hanna and Joseph 
Barbcra in animal skins) 
singing the FLINTSTONE 
thenie song. 

Levant admits to facing cer¬ 
tain anxieties about bringing 
the Flintstones back, particular¬ 
ly with a new cast. But he de¬ 
cided to lake those feelings in 
stride. “As with any sequel,” he 
said, “the audience could sav, 
4 Eh,’ I’m a huge FLINT- 
STONES fan. I wanted to see 
more of it, and I'm betting 
there are a lot of people out 
there who do as well. Like 1 
say. I think the fact that it’s a 
new experience and we're not 
just going back to Bedrock to 
see the same people is a plus. 
We'll see more of the world; 
it’s colorful and exciting. 
There’s music and dynamite 
special effects, sensational pup¬ 
petry. We just couldn't be hap¬ 
pier with it." 


Henson's Creature Shop 
and Rhythm & Hues. 


By Frederick 
C. Szebin 

If there was one particular 
element that enabled director 
Brian Levant to follow up his 
1994 live action FLINT¬ 
STONES feature, it was that 
Rhythm and Hues—with input 
from the director—figured out 
how to bring the Great Gazoo to 
life. Levant did not want to lose 
Gazoo from the film, but if a fi¬ 
nancially viable way to create 
him for the big screen hadn't 
been arrived at, THE FLINT¬ 
STONES IN VIVA ROCK VE¬ 
GAS might have gone through 
yet another rewrite, or into 
oblivion. But with his love of 
the material and the genius of 
Rhythm and Hues’ visual ef¬ 
fects director Doug Smith and 
his crew. Gazoo and a few other 
prehistoric wonders will make it 
to the screen this April 28th. 

Chameleon British actor 
Alan Cumming (EYES WIDE 
SHUT, GOLDENEYE) plays 
the green-skinned magical 
alien, big of head and of heart, 
trying to make life a little better 
for Fred and Barney, but some¬ 
times complicating it beyond 
comprehension. Gazoo is a fa¬ 
vorite of Levant’s, and he was 
determined to get the floating 
shortstuff on the screen. He just 
didn’t know how complicated 
that would be. 

“The first part of bringing 
Gazoo to life was the make up," 
said Levant. “Alan wears a 
large frontal lobe piece that 
goes up to the hairline because 
it all disappears under the hel¬ 
met, but we still wanted to get 
the idea that the brain was really 
big under there. Then he’s wear¬ 
ing check pieces, a very long 
pointed nose of course, and then 
a piece that goes from his eyelid 
up over his eyebrow, to give 


him almost a Mickey Mouse¬ 
shaped eye. It’s very whimsical, 
and at the same time alien.” 

Then with costume designer 
Robert Turturice, a special out¬ 
fit was designed totally out of 
human proportion to reflect 
how it would look once the ac¬ 
tor’s proportions were shrunk in 
the computer to resemble 
Gazoo’s tiny torso, hands, thin 
arms and legs, and enormous 
head and feet. “The boots, for 
instance,” said Levant, “were 
bigger than clown shoes; 
they’re like 28, 29 inches long, 
big and heavy. They’re foam, 
but still hard to move around in. 
Then wc used x200, a foam ma¬ 
terial that can be kind of weld¬ 
ed, to provide the outer skin and 
shape over polyurethane, and 
then the collar and cape, which 
had to be frozen because you 
can't always be rotoing it out on 
blucscreen, so we gave him a 
little cape, which is a little 
shorter than in the cartoon, 
which never moved, so ours 
doesn’t either." 

Cumming, who was working 
on Broadway at the time, was 
flown out to California for cos¬ 
tume fittings and to record the 
songs he performs as Mick 
Jagged, as well as to record all 
his dialogue as Gazoo so that 
the onset actors would have at 
least a semblance of a co-star to 
react to on the set. After main 
shooting wrapped, Cumming 
was then brought onto a blue 
screen style for three arduous 
weeks of 12 to 14 hour days to 
be hung on a flying rig in full 
make up and costume and per¬ 
form as Gazoo. 

“It’s amazing how it was 
pulled off,” says co-producer 
Bart Brown. “If you know any¬ 
thing about flying rigs, they re¬ 
ally start to wear on your legs 
and crotch and everything else. 


30 



















Jane Krakowski as Betty O'Shale (I) and Kristen Johnston as Wilma Slaghoople enjoy a Rock Vegas massage courtesy of Henson's cartoon-like puppetry. 


and this guy is hanging there, 
trying to do performances to 
nothing other than playback, 
but he nailed it. He was just out¬ 
standing, even during the last 
few days when he had a cold, 
wearing full prosthetic with this 
long, exaggerated nose, trying 
to blow it in between takes! He 
certainly was up for the chal¬ 
lenge.*' 

In order for Camming, a reg¬ 
ularly proportioned human, to 
play the tiny Gazoovian. he had 
to in a sense he electronically 
drawn and quartered, noted 
Brown; “They take him and do 
split tines; they cut him off at 
the arms, legs, cut him off at the 
neck, and then they repropor¬ 
tion those body parts and put 
them back together again, in 
layman's terms. It’s quite a 
process. Khythm and Hues and 
Cinesite did Gazoo because 
there were so many Gazoo shots 
that wc felt it necessary to divvy 
them up in order to make our 
schedule and not overload any 
one house. Rhythm and Hues 
had originated the process 
and were really the main 
Gazoo experts." 

Rhythm and Hues had to 
deal with the massive Bron- 
to-bridge, the Bronto-coastcr 
and the hundreds of Gazoo- 
vians that comprise the open¬ 
ing shot of the film. These 
beings were the CGI cre¬ 
ations Levant didn't want his 
main alien to be, directed by 
top animation director Bill 
Croycr. The hundreds of 
floating and working Gazoos 
in the mothership were put 
through multiple animation 
cycles so they could work at 


their keyboards. One of them 
even gives the CLOSE EN¬ 
COUNTERS OF THE THIRD 
KIND hand movements, one of 
the little in-jokes peppered 
throughout the film. 

Another one of the bits of 
eye candy is the CG Bronto- 
bridge, which Fred and Barney 
cross at the film’s beginning, 
which was sectioned together 
with locations filmed over the 
Navajo Bridge in Arizona, with 
driving done in Palmdale, Cali¬ 
fornia. and cliff face restructur¬ 
ing done in Rhythm and Hues' 
computers to make the Navajo 
Bridge location look like it 
could house a 600 foot di¬ 
nosaur, with the Flintstonian 
cars being composited into the 
entire image later to make the 
bronto look like it was a two- 
lane bridge. 

Other money shots include 
the Bronto-coaster, which is ac¬ 
tually three bronto-bcasts linked 
together with a sort of rock- 
carved roller coaster car riding 
along their backs; there is Chip 


Rockefeller's (Thomas Gibson) 
personal jet, a pterodactyl with 
a hollowed-out log as a passen¬ 
ger compartment, and then 
there is baby Dino, part Henson 
puppet, part CG puppy for long 
shots. Some effects shots, like 
actor’s performances can wind 
up on the cutting room floor, 
and this happened to Dino as 
well; the cartoon thespian lost a 
comedy death scene, as well as 
a funny bit in which he eats the 
contents of a meat wagon and 
jumps out of the vehicle as an 
overstuffed, out-sized pup with 
a full belly. 

Levant wanted to do an en¬ 
tire polo game with the human 
participants riding Hoppcroos, 
but this wasn’t financially feasi¬ 
ble. What’s left of the aban¬ 
doned concept is Thomas Gib¬ 
son as Chip Rockefeller riding 
into the shot astride the beast, 
and dismounting. To make it 
look like Gibson was moving as 
though astride such a creature a 
special saddle was created simi¬ 
lar to the mechanical bull made 


Filming Fred and Wilma on cartoon sets that recreate the look of the animated '60s 
TV show, part of director Brian Levant’s design and effects tour de force. 



famous by URBAN COWBOY 
that moved so Gibson seemed 
to be flowing with the floppy’s 
movements, much like a cow¬ 
boy bucking on a trotting horse. 
To make sure this worked out. 
Rhythm and Hues pre-animated 
the hopperoo and its rider so 
that everyone involved could 
agree upon how the motions 
should look. The Bronto-coaster 
was shot similarly, with motion 
control from specially-built mo¬ 
tion bases. 

Levant is happy with all the 
disparate results that make up 
VIVA ROCK VEGAS’ visual 
whole. He’s the perfect choice 
to make a movie like this; as a 
FLINTSTONE fan, he has what 
is probably the world’s single 
largest collection of FLINT- 
STONE memorabilia, and gen¬ 
uinely loves this stuff. 

*Tm kind of silly that way,” 
he laughed. “I like what ] like, 
and when you like something 
you don’t just say sayonara. I 
just think this tests so many 
skills, just to be part of the de¬ 
sign and the wardrobe, and the 
24,(HM) props, the set dressing, 
the costumes that wc make 
here. It's tike nothing else. It's 
so much different than even a 
sci-fi movie where you design 
uniforms, furniture and every¬ 
thing. Everything on this film 
has to be translated, and what 
you can do with those shapes 
and that material is just so 
much fun. When you look at it 
when you walk onto a set for 
the first time, and see it all to¬ 
gether is a wonderful feeling. 

1 think we’ve been so success¬ 
ful in creating a world where 
it all seems real.” 






The story behind J. 
epic five year SF 


Michael Straczynski’s 
novel for television. 


By Frank Garcia & 
Robert T. Garcia 


According to legend, the 
birth of BABYLON 5 was in 
1986. Joseph Michael Straczyn- 
ski, a veteran playwright, nov¬ 
elist, radio broadcaster, journal¬ 
ist and Hollywood writcr/pro- 
ducer had just stepped into the 
shower at his home when a ma¬ 
jor jolt altered the course of his 
life for the next 13 years. Stand¬ 
ing under the water stream of 
his bathtub, Straczynski had a 
major epiphany for a ground¬ 
breaking television project. 

He had ideas for a science 
fiction scries platform, taking 
place on a space station in the 
far future, on the scale of Isaac 
Asimov’s Foundation scries, or 
E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen 
books. The mind blast sent him, 
still dripping wet from his 
shower, running straight to his 
word processor. 

From the barest sketch of an 
idea, Straczynski constructed a 
full-blown, five year SF epic, 
broken down by five seasonal 
chapters, each containing 22 
segments and totalling 110 
episodes. He called it THE 
BABYLON PROJECT. Televi¬ 
sion history had never seen 
anything like it. 

“When I grew up, I fell in 
love with sagas,” said Straczyn¬ 
ski. “E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Lord of 
the Rings, Childhood's End, the 
mini-sagas like THE MAR¬ 
TIAN CHRONICLES stories, 
which arc disconnected but tell 


Straczynski on the set, writing and producing 110 episodes and five TV movies, 
currently airing as re-runs on TNT, SF's high watermark on television. 



a larger whole if you look at it. 
And 1 wondered, ‘Why has no 
one ever done this for American 
television?’The British have 
done some of this, THE PRIS¬ 
ONER, BLAKE’S 7. And that 
was the first question. ‘Is it pos¬ 
sible, can it be done?’” 

Straczynski teamed up with 
co-producers John Copeland 
and Douglas Netter, with whom 
he had worked on his earlier kid 
scries CAPTAIN POWER AND 
THE SOLDIERS OF THE FU¬ 
TURE. There were no commit¬ 
tees in making BABYLON 5. 
Because there were only three 
producers, noted director David 
Eagle, “If there was any ques¬ 
tion about anything, they were 
right there down the hall. The 
production offices were at¬ 
tached to the set. That made it 
easy and it took very little time 
to answer questions and solve 
problems. Everything was pret¬ 
ty self-contained and it was a 
well-oiled machine. 

“Also, what made the show 
unique was Joe was God. What 
he wrote was the way it was. It 
wasn’t a committee of other 
producers he had to submit his 
script to and go through six dif¬ 
ferent changes. There wasn’t a 
network that had their input. He 
was pretty much free to do what 
he wanted. If anything got 
changed, it was because he 
wanted to change it. Sometimes 
I got him to make changes when 
I was able to convince him it 
needed to be changed and when 
he felt it made sense. Other 


32 






























The Shadow* attack 
the White Star in third 
season's premiere 
“Matters of Honor,” 
CGI effects created by 
Foundation Imaging. 
Straczynski was the 
first U.S. producer to 
follow the British SF 
serial TV tradition. 














"On the issue of galactic pence I iim lung past 
innocence and fast approaching apathy. It's all 
a game, a paper fantasy of names and borders. 
Only one thing mutters: blood culls out for 
Mood.” 

—J .on do 


The Minbari assassin and saboteur kills himself 
after telling Sinclair that the Commander has a 
hole in his mind," in "The Gathering." 

hi this, our inlroduciion to the B5 universe, the 
station looked and sounded brighter, funkier than 
the series. In retrospect, the character ensemble is 
quite different, indicative as much of the state of 
evolution in the universe as il was behind the 
scenes in the making of I he show. It would have 
been a very different series had this cast been 
retained intact. 

When il premiered in 1993, Foundation 
Imaging's Emmy-winning computer generated 
special effects made this film stand out from 
any other SF film, giving it an exciting, unique 
and fresh presentation. Naturally, the quality 
and sophistication of the SFX have grown 
considerably since, but without their work, 
quite likely the series would never have 
materialized nor would it have been financially 
feasible. 

Ihe Special Edition surpasses the original's 
edit and music score by far. with the inclusion of 
more character scenes and less exposition. 

For actress Patricia Tallman. when she first 
looked at "The Gathering" script, she was 
impressed. "I knew' I had in my hands something 
extraordinary." she said. "It took science fiction 
seriously. It wasn’t cutesy." 

According to Joe Straczynski, the film’s 


BABYLON 5 
EPISODE GUIDE 

By Frank Garcia 


SEASON ONE 
“Signs and Portents” 


Gathering" and this second installment of the 
series. Foundation Imaging visual effects 
designer Ron Thornton and computer animator 
Adam "Mojo” Lebowitz described the 
requirements of this episode’s complex space 
battle. "The asteroid belt sequence in EMPIRE 
STRIKES BACK was a major sequence, finely 
thought out," said Lebowitz. “Purposely, in 
‘Midnight on the Firing Line,’ the fighters go off 
into this asteroid hell for tw-o or three shots, just 
to spice it up a little. It was no big deal, it took 
us a couple days. 

Trivia: 'ITie ISN photograph of President 
Santiago and Marie Craine is series executive 
producer Doug Netter and costume designer Anne 
Bruice. 


"The soul ends with death unless we act to 
preserve il.” 

—Soul Hunter to Delenn 

SoulHunter ** |/2 

1 2 I‘MM. #102 Written tit J. M Khar I Mrac/tmkj. Directed hi 
Jim Johmiuti. 

A ship comes through the jump gale on a 
collision course with the station. Sinclair is able to 
slop it but the injured pilot is a Soul Hunter (W. 
Morgan Sheppardk a being who captures and 
preserves the souls of the recent dead. He tells 
Sinclair that Delenn is Satai and later Sinclair 


"What do you want, you moon-faced assassin 
of joy. —!,<> it do to Vir 

Born to the Purple * a m 

1 V |Wt. t|04 W ritten hi lam IMTilUo. Directed b> timer 
Sclb Cittn. 

I “lido is holding up negotiations with G'Kar 


"Would you prefer to he conscious 

or unconscious during the mating? I would prefer 

conscious but 1 don’t know what y our...plcu.sure 

threshold is.” . . . .. , 

—G Kar to Lyta Alexander 


THE ** fORIGINAL) 

Gathering_ kkk <s .eq 

Original: 2 22 1‘w.t j„c1 the Special Milton: I 4 l«W. Written 
hi J. Mirharl Sirarriniki. HirerIrd by Kirbrd < umpimi. 

When the Vorlon Empire's ambassador. 

Kosh. becomes the victim of an attempted 
assassination during his arrival aboard Babylon 
5, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael 
O’Harc) is accused of being the assassin. Lyta 
Alexander (Pauicia Tallman), a Psi Corps 
tclcpalh. made the discovery during her psychic 
probe of the injured Kosh. Charged with the 
crime. Sinclair appears before the advisory 
council chaired by l.t. Commander Laurel 
Takashima (Tnmlyn Tomita) and representatives 
of the other alien races. To clear his name, 
Sinclair orders Station Chief Michael Garibaldi 
(Jerry Doyle) to find the truth 


Delenn and Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) enjoy Datfy 
Duck in Duck Dodgers at the close of "Midnight 
On the Firing Line/' as the series begins airing. 

author and series creator. "1 had reservations 
about the pilot," he said. "Something fell wrong 
to me. Ultimately, it's my responsibility. I was 
then new to executive producing a scries and 
when the director did his cut il w'as not as good 
as it should have been. I didn’t know enough to 
go in and say, Tm going to re-edit this.’ 1 more 
or less deferred to the director’s judgment and 
he had taken many scenes and made them long 
and ponderous. T he action stuff was twice as 
long as it should have been, and the character 
moments and the humor and a lot of good stuff 
ended up on the cutting room floor." To rectify 
his reservations, Straczynski and producer John 
Copeland managed to commission a “Special 
Edition" of the film for TNT as part of the 
series' premiere on their network. 


Midnight on the Firing Line ★ k * 

I 2b 19*4. IIU Written by J. Mkhul SlrM/mski, hnninl In 
Hu hji d 4 'onipbin. 


Londo (alls hard for Centaur) slave girl Adira 
Tyree (Fabiana Udenlo), holding up negotiations 
with the Narn. in "Born To the Purple." 


"Soul Hunter” W. Morgan Sheppard meets with 
NGrath, the ill-fated ruler of Downbelow, on his 
mad quest to capture the soul of Delenn. 


finds out it means she is on the Grey Council. A 
second Soul Hunter (John Snyder) arrives in hot 
pursuit of his brother who is mad. The rogue Soul 
Hunter decides to kill Delenn slowly and lake her 
soul wilh his machine. 

l-iirry DiTillio said that he conceived Ihe idea 
behind this episode. “Do we have a soul or don’t 
we? According to the Soul Hunters, we do and 
they steal il away from you. It certainly called for 
a follow-up. It’s an idea 1 certainly wanted to 
know more about. I thought 'Soul Hunter'was a 
fascinating piece of work. Morgan Sheppard did a 
hell of a job,” 

“BABYLON .S traffics in ambiguity," said Joe 
Straczynski. "Was the Soul Hunter simply taking 
memories? Was he copying over the ncuro 
pathways and creating an imprint of that? Is that 
the soul? We don’t answer that question and it was 
the first lime we threw out the notion that the 
show would not deal in all that you’re used to 
seeing. We love to walk them straight into areas 
where there aren't easy answers. I wanted you to 
discuss what is the soul." 


A year after "The Gathering," new 
Earth Force personnel arrive on Babylon 5. 
Commander Susan Ivanova is second in 
command and Talia Winters is Ihe station's 
Resident Telepath. When the Narns attack a 
Ccntauri agricultural colony where Londo’s 
nephew. Cam Mollari (Peter Trencher) is 
staiioncd, he and G’Kar come to blows and 
Londo tells Sinclair about his prophetic dream 
that he will die by G'Kar’s hand. The council 
discusses sanctions against Ihe Narn but an Earth 
senator (Paul Hampton) tells Sinclair that Earth 
will slay neutral. Garibaldi introduces Delenn to 
Duck Dodgers and popcorn. 

For an indication how quickly visual special 
effects had advanced in the year between "The 


34 





















times, he would not 
change things. The buck 
began and stopped with 
Joe. That is a more effi¬ 
cient way of doing 
things. 

“There’s no stan¬ 
dards and practices peo¬ 
ple and I think that's 
part of the problem they 
had with [spin-off] 

CRUSADE. All of a 
sudden they had a deal 
with a network who was 
meddling and wanted 
things done differently.” 

When CAPTAiN 
POWER was cancelled, 

Slraczynski and buddy 
Larry DiTillio went 
shopping around with 
other series ideas. DiTil¬ 
lio remembered the first 
time he saw the B5 
stuff: "We had done one 
series idea together, 

THE DAWN ' PRO¬ 
JECT. which we tried to 
shop around, but we 
didn't get anv bites on 
it/’ said DiTillio. “Joe 
was fleshing out B5 be¬ 
cause he was trying 
to do it at the same 
time. 

By the Spring of 
1987, after a year of 
working on it, Stra- 
czynski had a full se¬ 
ries treatment and a 
writer’s bihlc. Artist 
Peter Ledger was hired to design a BABY¬ 
LON 5 logo, and to do a series of paintings 
based on the treatment and bible, which 
were then used for various presentations. Of 
course. George Lucas successfully market¬ 
ed STAR WARS to 20th Century-Fox with 
this technique by hiring Ralph McQuarrie 
to produce a series of art paintings to help 
visualize his concept. 

At the time, most of the final elements 
were there. The space station. The League 
of Non-aligned Worlds. The ambassadors. 
The brochure described the Vorlons as “a 
group not to be trusted. A massive power 
struggle is going on among their upper ech¬ 
elons where advancement is only accom¬ 
plished by assassination. They seek to elim¬ 
inate the Earth Alliance and solidify them¬ 
selves as heads of the Empire." This was, 
apparently, a discarded concept of the Vor¬ 
lons. 

“It went through several different incar¬ 
nations and became different each time.” 
said DeTillo. “There were a couple times 
(Slraczynski) thought it was going to sell, 
and he told me to drop everything and come 
and work on BABYLON 5, and it didn’t 
happen. Finally, he made it happen. He 


found people who be¬ 
lieved in it as strongly 
as he did and got it on 
the air.” 

Among the distribu¬ 
tors to whom BABY¬ 
LON 5 was pitched and 
rejected, included CBS, 
HBO. ABC. and others. 
But finally, in March 
1989, the package was 
pitched to Chris-Craft 
Television, a consortium 
of independent stations 
scattered across the 
country. CCT pledged 
support of the series 
idea, and they attempted 
to create co-production 
deals with foreign in¬ 
vestors. 

CCT was looking for 
a studio production 
partner to join them in 
building a new net¬ 
work. Everyone in¬ 
volved agreed that the 
best method of launch¬ 
ing the series would be 
to present one or two 
television movies so 
that it would be an 
event, and so that the 
budget spent for the 
films could help fi¬ 
nance the sets needed 
for the series. Once the 
planners of the new net¬ 
work were hooked, 
they had to find a stu¬ 
dio to actually produce 

the episodes. 

In the summer of 1989, BABYLON 5 
was pitched to Paramount. They passed and 
four years later opted instead to do their 
own space station scries, STAR TREK: 
DEEP SPACE NINE. By a coincidence that 
was rare in the industry, both shows actual¬ 
ly wound up being launched nearly simulta¬ 
neously, which angered Slraczynski a great 
deal. By this point he had worked for nearly 
seven years to create something original for 
television, only to be upstaged by DS9 
which had a very similar concept. 

By December, 1989, Chris-Craft hooked 
up with Warner Bros to start a new syndi¬ 
cated network, forming a Consortium called 
Prime Time Entertainment Network 
(PTEN) with TV stations around the coun¬ 
try. At this juncture, Slraczynski was work¬ 
ing as a wriler/producer on CBS' MURDER 
SHE WROTE to pay the bills. In Novem¬ 
ber. 1991, BABYLON 5 was announced as 
one of three flagship projects. 

BABYLON 5 effects supervisor Ron 
Thornton. saw this as a perfect time to start 
his own business. In I99(), Thornton and his 
friend Paul Beigle-Bryant, began discussing 
the possibility of creating a digital effects 


because he’s tailing hard fur Adira Tyree f Fabiuna 
Udenio) a beautiful slave girl. Her muster. I rakis 
(Clive Revill), promises to free her if she steals a 
tup secret Cc Mauri file he can sell to the Nurns. 
but when Adira realizes she can't betray I .undo 
and refuses to turn over the data crystal, her life is 
in danger Sinclair gets very devious when Londo 
asks him to help rind her before Irakis does. 
Sinclair tricks G'Kar into leading them to Trukis 
and makes Londo accept a compromise in the 
peace talks in exchange for his help. Someone is 
using the restricted communication channel 
illegally. Garibaldi is surprised to find out it's 
Ivanova contacting her dying father Andrei Ivanov 
(Robert Phalcn} but he keeps her secret. 

" Born To The Purple' was a premise that Joe 
came up with and handed to me as my first 
script,” recalled story editor Dirry DiTillio. 
"Londo smuggles |thc drug] Dust in his 
diplomatic pouch I didn't want to do the Dust 
part of it. I never quite understood the drug and I 
didn't understand it when Joe finally did the 
episode on it either. 

"Why would anyone warn to take a drug that 
would tum you into a maniac and kill you? 
lliere's not too much pleasure in that. Drug 
addicts are drug addicts because the drugs give 
them pleasure. I couldn’t figure it out, 

“What i wanted to do was deal with something 
else that Joe told me early on and was in the bible. 
lhat Guido's greatest tragedy was that he was a 
man who was always looking for love." 

The appeal of the episode, says DiTillio, was 
watching Londo fall in love "with this woman and 
be betrayed by her. And this has been happening 
to him all his life." 



David McCallum as Dr. Vance Hendricks and 
Richard Biggs as Dr. Franklin examine an alien 
artifact in the Med Lab in "Infection." 


“Organic technology is the one trick Earth 
hasn't been able to crack, the ability to create 
living ships lhat thrive in the vacuum of space, 
to create weapons that produce their own power 
through internal generation, tike a fin ny lights 
up at night." —Vance Hendricks. 

Infection * 

Z Ifi IW-L #101 \\ Mflrn hi J. VI h: had Mrarryciiki. Dimtrd In 
Kichiird ( ompf iiRh 

An ISN reporter on the station interviews the 
station personnel and Sinclair keeps ducking her. 
Dr. Vance Hendricks (David McCallum>, an 
archeologist friend of Dr. Franklin, smuggles a 
l.(MX) year-old bio-lech device from a dead world 
past the station's bio-hazard safeties. The device 
turns Nelson Drake (Marshall League) into a bio¬ 
mechanical nightmare determined to ethnically 
cleanse Babylon 5. and Sinclair is forced to reason 
with it in order to save the station. Hendricks was 
financed by an Earth corporation. Interplanetary 
Expeditions <II*X) to find alien technology and 
Franklin thinks it's morally wrong. An EarthForce 
Defense team confiscates the device so Earth can 
sludy bio-tech 


£ £ What made the show 
unique was that Joe 
was God. There wasn’t 
a network with input. 

If anything changed 
it was because he 
wanted to change it. 55 

—Director David Eagle- 



35 

























Producer John Copeland recalled that because 
this was the first production after the series pilot, 
excitement and anticipation was high among the 
cast and crew. “Ii always fakes a while for 
everyone to settle in and become familiar with 
making a new show. We had, for the most pan, a 
very young crew and everyone was excited to be 
embarking on the journey. 

“‘Infection’ had its ups and downs. We were 
going into sets to shoot for the first time and 
discovering things that worked and didn't work 
about the way we had laid them out. Production 
was a little on the slow side as we were lighting 
many of the sets as we got to them to begin 
shooting" 

Sets construction on 12 sets took nine weeks 
and on day one of week III. shinning for 
“Infection" began. "Just about everything was 
untried," C opeland said. "Marshall Teague, who 
played Nelson and the Machine, was wearing a 
neoprene suit and was overcome briefly by heal." 


“Farthers have a phrase: 'Keep your friends 
close and vnur enemies closer.’ 1 believe they 

sWIt- i. fn.m us.” K.r lu Na tulh 


THI V \H\ 1 AMENT OF D REAMS 

2J2Sf IWI. IMIM Wotitn til J. tltrhad .Sirar*yii*ki. Ilimrird by 

Jim Jnhnshm 

Catherine Sakai (Julia Nickson), an old 
girlf riend of Sinclair's visits while the station is 
having a festival featuring religious ceremonies of 
many different races including Human. When 
G’Kar’saidc, Ko‘Oath dies accidentally he fears 
that her replacement, Na’inth (Julie Caiilin 
Brow n) is really an assassin sent to kill him until 
she saves him from IVPari (Thomas Kopoche), 
the real killer. We get a deeper glimpse of the alien 
races through their different approaches to 
religious belief and ceremony. Sinclair isn’t sure 
which religion to pick from Earth and so he invites 
a representative from them all. 

"All of ST is heightened dram a.” said Julie 
Caiilin Brown. "Its very hard when you're 
dealing with aliens and technology that doesn't 
exist, and not feel it's more dramatic than 
everyday life. You're talking about interplanetary 
conflict and war on a regular basis. It's always a 
w orld hanging on a balance. It is more dramatic, 
more Shakespearean. Joe and the writers of STAR 
TREK do write like that.” 



Peter Jurasik as Londo and Stephen Furst as Vlr 
feast at a Centauri religious ceremony during a 
station festival in "Parliament of Dreams." 


" The Psi Corps is dedicated to one thing: 
control. Control over telepaths, the economy, 
the courts, over matter, over thought itself." 

—Jason Ironheart 

Mind War **** 

):im §110 Written by J, Mkhatl Stnr/yluki. Directed by 
Hrutr Sclb Umrn. 

A rogue tclcpalh on the run from Psi Corps 


facility utilizing the lat¬ 
est advances in desktop 
computer technologies. 

It was while working on 
the 1987 half-hour SF 
series CAPTAIN POW¬ 
ER, that Thornton first 
began to experiment 
with 3-D computer 
graphics which would 
prc-visualizc special 
effects shots. Me and his 
partner Beiglc-Bryant 
invested in a whole new 
technology: Computer 
Generated Imagery 
(CGI.) 

Thornton was a 
proachcd bv his CAP¬ 
TAIN POWER col¬ 
leagues Strac/ynski, 

Netter and Copeland in 
mid-199 I to bid on 
miniatures for BABY¬ 
LON 5. Thornton sug¬ 
gested using computers 
for the effects on BAB¬ 
YLON 5. Thornton and 
Beiglc-Bryant created a 
one minute video of pro¬ 
posed visual effects for 
BABYLON 5, which 
would become in¬ 
strumental in selling 
the show to Warner 
Bros television in Ju¬ 
ly 1992. 

Steve Burg, the 
designer of TERM- 
IN ATOR 2, THE 
ABYSS, and other 
SF features came on board to design the 
world of BABYLON 5, including the four 
alien ambassadors and the one-man Star- 
fury fighter ships. He continued to work on 
odds and ends on the show, including the 
design of Kosh’s revelatory appearance in 
second season's “The Fall of Night.” 

Noted Straczynski's fellow producer 
Douglas Netter, “Joe came to John 
(Copeland) and I right after we finished 
CAPTAIN POWER and said. I've got an 
idea for a science fiction show' that can be 
contained, that we can do for a price, that 
has the potential to be greater than science 
fiction shows have been. But it took us six 
years from that point to get the pilot made." 

Their biggest obstacle was. Netter re¬ 
called, that “the networks had had science 
fiction pitched to them before, along with 
the caveat. ‘We can do this for a reasonable 
price.’ Of course, that was (me of the great 
lies in Hollywood. And even though John 
and I had an excellent reputation for bring¬ 
ing shows in under budget and on time, as 
soon as they heard about big effects, red 
flags would go up in their minds. They were 
afraid that any attempt to do a science fic¬ 
tion show on a tight budget might result in 


inferior production val¬ 
ues." 

And Warner Bros 
didn’t see how a high- 
quality show could be 
done on a light budget. 
"They said, ‘Well, if 
you are going to do it 
for that, this stuff will 
look terrible.’And we 
said. ‘No, it won’t,*” 
Netter remembered. In 
order to convince them, 
they brought out the 
video of Thornton’s 50- 
sccond sequence featur¬ 
ing a computer-generat¬ 
ed spaceship being 
tracked from far in the 
distance to its arrival at 
the space station s dock¬ 
ing bay. done all in one 
contnuous shot. 

Straczynski likes to 
recount how, on his 
pitch to the affiliates, he 
was terrified. He be¬ 
came sick, he was so 
nervous that he cracked 
his tooth just before he 
entered the room, re¬ 
quiring an ice pack to 
reduce the swelling. AH 
he had was a story and a 
short tape of sampled 
special effects. When 
Ron Thornton’s video 
w'as shown to Warner 
Bros executives and 
PTEN TV station heads, 
the buyers were as¬ 
tounded. "When it was over, they said, 
‘We’ve got to sec that again!”’ Netter re¬ 
called. “And then when we said, ‘We did it 
on a desktop computer.’ they were flabber¬ 
gasted.” As a result, the producers finally 
got their production deal for a pilot, which 
was filmed in just under 30 days at a w are¬ 
house in Santa Clarita, California between 
August and September 19^2 under director 
Richard Compton. [See CFQ 23:5) The 
BABYLON 5 pilot debuted as a two-hour 
movie, "The Gathering," in the week of 
February 22, 1993, to a 10.3 GAA national 
rating. 

When the scries was ordered-up in April, 
1993, the producers were faced with the 
prospect of renting studio space from Warn¬ 
ers and they realized they wouldn’t have the 
budget to do the epic they had planned. So 
they went real estate shopping and carted 
over all the sets to a warehouse in Sun Val¬ 
ley, California. 

Optic Nerve Makeup under John Vulich 
took over from Criswell Productions for all 
the prosthetics work and Anne Bruice-Ail- 
ing replaced Catherine Adair in the costume 
department. When series shooting began in 
July 1993, stages were still under construc¬ 


ts The network had had 
sci-fi pitched to them 
before, along with the 
caveat, ‘We can do this 
for a reasonable price,’ 
one of the great 
lies of Hollywood. J J 


—Producer Doug Netter — 



36 



























Filming the pilot at the Santa Clarita Production 

Center on the Main Corridor Set in 1992. inset: 

Peter Ledger's original corridor design concept. 

clair. [but] because it was one more thing 
tying to this one guy which stretched 
credulity, I think, past the breaking point. I 
said, 'What if I move him off the chess¬ 
board and bring in someone who does have 
a connection to the Shadows, someone who 
is more willing to get involved in a conspir¬ 
acy of light, as it were, against his own gov¬ 
ernment and someone who at a time when 
we are really looking at a major war break¬ 
ing out is more of a soldier than diplomat." 

As luck would have it, one of televi¬ 
sion’s biggest stars was in the middle of a 
career change, having dropped his old busi¬ 
ness manager and looking for something he 
had never done before. BABYLON 5 fit the 
bill. Bruce Boxleitner signed as Captain 
John Sheridan, and the future of BABY¬ 
LON 5 looked healthy again. 

It was rocky for a while. Scripts had to 
be written while the casting call was going 
on. So the writers wrote them with an car 
toward Michael O'Hare's reading patterns, 
a far cry from Boxleitner's Midwestern 
rhythms. Lots of rewriting was going on. 
The other cast members received the news 
of the replacement two weeks before shoot¬ 
ing. And it threw some of them off...but 
Boxleitner won everyone over quickly. His 
calm, affable manner kept everyone com¬ 
fortable. 

Boxleitner’s hiring assuaged the fears of 
many of PTEN’s worried affiliates. B5 went 
from a show starring a New York theatre ac¬ 
tor and great character actors to a show with 
a lead whose TV-0 rating was through the 
roof. The star of SCARECROW AND 
MRS. KING and numerous successful 
miniseries was someone they could sell to 
advertisers. 

On August 10. EMM B5's second season 
began shooting with "Points of Departure.” 
In September, the series won its second 
Emmy, for makeup design on “Parliament 
of Dreams." By the end of the season. 


lion. Noises came in from outside. Ceilings 
leaked. Rainstorms happened. Yet the cast 
and crew became totally wrapped up in 
building Straczynski’s universe. 

In making the transition from the pilot to 
the scries, visible changes were made in 
costumes, set designs, and even in the spe¬ 
cial effects. "They had corrected what mis¬ 
takes they made in the pilot,” said Larry Di- 
Tillio. “They look out the ‘Muppet aliens.' 
There was a great sense of wonder and dis¬ 
covery in those first six months and a great 
sense of wracked nerves.” 

In September 1993, the BABYLON 5 
pilot won Ron Thornton his first Emmy for 
best visual effects. In mid-October, the first 
fully completed episode was delivered to 
Warner Bros. By late January 1994, the se¬ 
ries premiered. As filming the first season 
was about to wrap in late March, it became 
apparent that while the series was gaining 
popularity, the star needed to be replaced to 
get new stations signed up. The ensemble 
cast was comprised of relative unknowns 
with no one to draw in a wider TV audi¬ 
ence, After the season ended, scries lead 
Michael O'Harc got the news, and a casting 
call went out for a new commander of the 
BABYLON 5. Straczynski used the casting 
change to restrategize the story dynamics of 
the series’ five-year plan. 

“Sinclair's connections were to the Min- 
bar,” said Straczynski. “The Battle of the 
Line, the missing 24 hours. The problem 
was I needed someone who had a link to the 
Shadows which we didn't know he had ini¬ 
tially and I thought of putting them on Sin¬ 



Jason Ironheart (William Allen Young), the most 
powerful of human telepaths, achieves godhood, 
moving out among the stars In “Mindwar.” 


and Bcstcr (Walter Koenig) arrives. Jason 
Ironheart (William Allen Young) was Talia 
Winter’s old lover and teacher. Because of 
experiments performed upon him by Psi-Corps, he 
is now one of I he most powerful human telepaths 
in creation. His ‘ growing pains" rocks the station, 
and Bester and his assistant Kelsey (Felicity 
Waterman) try to kill him before he reaches full 
potential. They fail, and god-like, he transcends 
mortality, his huge glowing image is last seen 
heading out for the stars, but not before he gives 
Talia the gift of telekinesis. (i’Kar warns 
Catherine (Julia Nickson) not to survey Sigma 
975, a planet in Nam space. As soon as she comes 
close to the planet, a strange ship kills all power to 
her own vessel but Narn fighters that G’Kar sent 
after her rescue her. 

“I found them to be a very cordial group of 
people,” said Waller Koenig, recalling his first 
stint aboard this deep space station. ”It was very 
nice to be treated so well. I think what’s happened 
with a lot of STAR TREK actors, it’s not exclusive 
to my situation, when they've appeared on other 
shows, particularly another SF show—I’m talking 
about the original cast now—they’re greeted with 
a sense of respect that attests to the fact that they 
were a part of the original group that made STAR 
TREK. People on BABYI.ON 5 were extremely 
pleasant and very respectful. They made me feel 
very welcome." 


“We want lo marry each other; we love each 
other." 

“laive? What does love have to do with 


marriage 


■»** 


—Riran and Dindo 


The War Prayer 

3/9/1994, #107 Written by D»< \ funUna. Directed by Rkiurd 
< urn pi cm. 

Things are getting ugly on the station. 


Kiran (Rodney Eastman), Vir’s cousin, and Aria 
(Danica McKeltar), running away from arranged 
marriages, ask Londo’s help In “The War Prayer.” 



37 


























Members of Honicguarii. a violent pro-harlh 
group stage numerous attacks on aliens. Shaal 
Mayan (Nancy tare (irahn) a famous Minbari poet 
and old friend of Detenu's is (he latest victim. 
Ivanova's old lover. Malcolm liiggs (Tristan 
Rogers) shows up trying to rekindle the romance 
hut when it turns out he's a member of 
[{omeguard. Ivanova and Sinclair pretend to 
sympathize to learn who the rest of the terrorists 
are and capture them. Vir asks lamdo to help his 
cousin Kiran I Rodney Kastman) and his love, Aria 
(l)anica McKellar) who are running from arranged 
marriages. Violence is breaking out all over the 
station, some aliens beat up a human named 
Roberts (Michael Paul Chan) and the llomeguard 
attacks the Centauri lovers. 

“I did a rewrite myself mainly to lake the 
Centauri lover story and scale it down a little hit." 
said Larry l)i I'illio. "In the first draft, there was 
just too much of it. It was overshadowing the 
bigger story, about llomeguard. I quite liked the 
Centauri story, l or one thing, it gives I undo a 
little twist. He becomes a little nicer guy in the 
story. Thai's interesting to me. Dorothy loves 
those stories. She just got carried away. The way 
we worked it. it came out well.” 


“Everyone lies. Michael. The innocent lie 
Irecause they don't want to he blamed for 
something they didn't do, and the guilty lie 
because they don't have any other choice.” 

—Sinclair to Garibaldi. 

Anii the Sky Full of Stars _***★ 

S IS IWJ. *]06 VVntlro hjf J. Vluhjrl Slrat/t nski. Dirrrlrd hv 
Jinrt (>mk. 

Knight One (Jud-son Scott) and Knight Two 
(Christopher Neamc) kidnap Sinclair and use a 
virtual reality cybcmel to try to unlock Sinclair's 
missing memories during the Earth/Minbari war. 
Knight One and Sinclair arc locked inside a 
simulation that keeps repealing Sinclair's experience 
on (he Battle ol the Line. Sinclair begins to 
remember. He was taken inside the Minbari warship 
he tried to ram and was tortured and interrogated by 
hooded gray figures. In the visions. Sinclair sees 
Dclenn's face. It’s such a shock that he breaks out of 
his restraints and attacks the two Knights. 

"We were very fortunate to get Janet 
Greek.” said Larry Oi I'illio. "She was a science 
fiction fan and because she was a women, the 
industry wouldn’t let her work on science 
fiction shows. I consider ‘Skv Hull of Stars' as 
the breakout show* of the first season. My big 
regret was not being able to work with Janet. 

She did like my stuff. We hud a pretty good 
relationship. We palled around a lot She's just a 
super director, because her visual eye is so 
gorgeous. When you went to see her dailies— 
which are a bore to look at half the lime—in 
just the framing of the shots and sluff like (hat. 
Janet's were really terrific. 

“She subsequently did most of the big arc 


Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) is kidnapped and 
strapped into a virtual reality machine to unlock 
his missing memories of the Earth/Minbari war. 



Bruce Boxleitncr man¬ 
aged to settle down and 
be comfortable in his 
role. But there was an 
unexpected casualty in 
the ranks: actress An¬ 
drea Thompson didn’t 
feel she was doing 
enough and asked to be 
let out of her contract. 

She would become just 
the second of several 
departures. To compen¬ 
sate, Straczynski wrote 
“Divided Loyalties," to 
write her out and rein¬ 
troduce B5*s original 
telepath. Lyta Alexander 
as played by Patricia 
Tall man. 

The series success 
had enabled Warner 
Bros to syndicate the 
show in over 15 other 
countries, including 
England. France, Ger¬ 
many. Singapore. Thai¬ 
land. Australia (where 
fan support brought it 
back on the air after it 
was cancelled), Israel, 

Malaysia, Japan and 
parts of South Amer¬ 
ica. “We were on in 
Greece for a while," 
said Straczynski, 

“but the station that 
was airing it went 
bankrupt. It actually 
shut down in the 
middle of one of our 
episodes. I’m told that there were picket 
lines the next morning demanding that they 
show ihe second half.” 

Bruce Boxleitncr remarked, “In my 
opinion, science fiction is not mainstream. I 
think some people just look at these rubber 
heads and go 'Whal is that? Honey can you 
put SEINFELD back on?’ ER is always go¬ 
ing to be more popular than BABYLON 5.” 

The show, however, grew into quite a hit 
in several markets overseas, like Germany 
and England, but in the United States it 
ranked behind STAR TREK: VOYAGER 
and HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY 
JOURNEYS. Its long, epic storyline is one 
that at least the English could appreciate 
w ith similar shows like BLAKE’S 7 or 
THE PRISONER. 

Harlan Ellison has called it, “GONE 
WITH THE WIND in space." 

It’s a description that Straczynski finds 
quite appropriate: “You could sav that 
GONE WITH THE WIND [like BABY¬ 
LON 51 is a very plot-driven story, because 
it was driven by the Civil War Events hap¬ 
pen which move very quickly and arc very 
intense. The story can’t happen without that 
context, hut it's about the characters in the 


£ fi Governments will 
rise. Governments will 
fall. That’s in the back¬ 
ground. In the fore¬ 
ground we see how if 
affects a small group of 
people at the center. 99 

—Writer, Joe Straczynski 



foreground. 

“Similarly, BABY¬ 
LON 5 functions as a 
microcosm. We have 
these huge dark and in¬ 
imical forces working 
behind the scenes. Gov¬ 
ernments will rise. Gov¬ 
ernments will fall. His¬ 
tory’s going to change. 
That’s all in the back¬ 
ground. In the fore¬ 
ground are your charac¬ 
ters, and we see how all 
that affects a small 
group of people caught 
in this crucible at the 
center of it." 

The series’ third sea¬ 
son was officially 
grccnlightcd in June K, 
1995. However, there 
was a brief time during 
the summer when it 
looked like BABYLON 
5 did not have a future. 
Straczynski said it was 
because of “weird stuff 
at Warner Bros' PTEN 
network. “Nothing to do 
with us," he said, “but 
we heard from Warners 
that we shouldn’t hold 
out anv hope for renew¬ 
al." 

Straczynski remem¬ 
bered his shock, “For 
one day, John Copeland 
and I were sitting on ice 
picks. I didn't know 
what to do. I was mas¬ 
sively depressed. I tried to write but I could¬ 
n’t. I actually got hives. I hadn't had hives 
since I had gone to high school. It was just 
such a foreign concept to me that it would¬ 
n't get done that my whole brain imploded. 
The next day they said, ‘We worked it out.’ 
The problem was an impasse between 
Warner Bros and the PTEN stations over 
single-vs. double-runs, caused by the influx 
of other available new programming." 

In July, B5 was nominated for three Em- 
mys in the categories of Cinematography 
and Hairstyling for "Geometry of Shad¬ 
ows" and Makeup for “Acts of Sacrifice.” 

With the third season pickup, Straczyns¬ 
ki promised to wreak all sort of havoc in the 
BABYLON 5 universe. Extending the 
GONE WITH THE WIND metaphor, it was 
lime to burn Atlanta. 

Straczynski was referring to one of the 
series’ most pivotal events, “Severed 
Dreams,” where Sheridan fought against his 
own government and declared the station as 
an independent colony until President Clark 
was removed from office. At the end of the 
third season, renewal/canccllation tensions 
sprang up again because PTEN was dis¬ 
continued on pant* 43 


Andreas Katsutas as Narn 
Ambassador G'Kar. Inset: 

Straczynski's original 
character concept sketched 
by designer Peter Ledger. 


38 












The actor behind Captain John Sheridan on 
commanding Straczynski’s station for four seasons. 



By Robert Garcia 

Bruce Boxleitner, (he “king 
of (he television mini-series/’ 
had become bored with the 
same old thing. Ironically, what 
he chose to alleviate his bore¬ 
dom was to become the star of 
the longest mini-series in TV 
history, BABYLON 5. 

“I had done all there was to 
do on television, from series to 
miniseries to movies of the 
week, and they were all the 
same after a while,” said 
Boxlcitncr. “I think that’s what 
was getting to me. Nothing re¬ 
ally tweaked my imagination.” 

When producers John Copeland 
and Doug Netter (whom he 
worked for in westerns in the 
’70s), asked him to come in for 
BABYLON 5. It was a wel¬ 
come call, but a funny coinci¬ 
dence. 

While he had watched the 
occasional rerun of B5 and en¬ 
joyed its “darker, grittier feel,” 
he never really followed the 
show. One evening a member 
of his East Coast fan club heard 
that Michael O’Hare was leav¬ 
ing the show, and suggested 
that Boxleitner get his agent on 
it. “But that’s not how it 
works,” he said. “If someone is 
interested in me, they call me and that’s 
fine.” Two weeks later he received a call. 

Boxleitner found out that his call-in was 
part of a long casting process. “They had 
seen everybody in town,” quipped Boxleit¬ 
ner, “Corbin Bcrnscn, Michael York, every¬ 
body.” But on his interview he found that 
there was much to like about the job. “I had 
been doing a lot of traveling that year with 
M.O.W.s, and I was really just tired of that. 
1 have family here. 1 wanted to see my son. 
So the show answered a lot of things for 
me. I have a wife and a home that I come 


home to at night instead of a hotel room.” 

Writer Joe Straczynski’s plot twists and 
turns really hooked the star. “That's what 
made this all so much fun,” he said, "I nev¬ 
er had this type of fun with any of my other 
TV shows. When I was doing westerns I en¬ 
joyed them, because I was out riding horses 
and learning all those skills. This one had 
its own rewards.” 

Personally and professionally, BABY¬ 
LON 5 was exactly what Boxleitner was 
looking for and he agreed to sign on. How¬ 
ever it was only a week or so before the 


show started actually filming, 
and for a short time chaos en¬ 
sued. On the first episode, 
Straczynski was on the sound 
stage, altering completed scripts 
to match dialogue to Boxleit- 
ner’s speech patterns. The cast 
and crew had to adjust to him 
being the new leading man, and 
Boxleitner, himself, had to play 
catch-up. “I really had to im¬ 
merse myself into Straczynski's 
world,” he said. “Everybody 
else had the advantage of being 
on for a season, comfortable in 
their clothes. I hit the ground 
running." 

The star soon got into the 
swing of things. His affable 
manner and sheer professional¬ 
ism quickly won over the cast 
and crew. At first glance, Bruce 
Boxleitner, with his homespun 
good looks and sunny disposi¬ 
tion seems an odd choice to 
play the commander of Babylon 
5, After all, B5 is a hotbed of 
brooding, tragically flawed 
characters, but Boxlcitner’s 
Captain John Sheridan proved 
to be just what the darkcr-than- 
TREK series needed to reach a 
wider audience. 

When asked about why he 
thinks his character is more 
popular than the previous com¬ 
mander Sinclair, Boxleitner said, “I think 
Sheridan’s a sunnier character. Maybe that's 
just something I bring to it. With Sinclair, 
there was something missing. He had this 
darkness to him. 

“Sheridan is what Joe wanted as a hero. 
A guy who has to keep going and puts the 
best face on things. He has his downside. 
He’s temperamental and sometimes a little 
impulsive, but he really believes in the fu¬ 
ture. Like the speech I gave in ‘And Now 
For A Word.’ He still believes that we have 
to carry on for future generations, and build 


39 






Boxleitner as a bearded Sheridan 5th season, wed 
to Minbari Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) and 
elected President ol the Interstellar Alliance. 


a life for them. He's kind of an old-fash¬ 
ioned, gung-ho, let’s-go-for-it guy, and 
maybe you need that in the saga." 

But Boxleitner doesn't see Sheridan as 
all sunshine and light. He definitely views 
him as part of the gritty B5 crew. “I think all 
the Harthers on Babylon 5 are lonely indi¬ 
viduals. It's kind of a foreign legion out¬ 
post. The people there are misfits. They’re 
very dysfunctional, lonely characters all 
seeking something, which holds a continual 
fascination for me as an actor, ivonova and 
Sheridan share very much this same kind of 
thing. They weren’t successful 
at their private lives with rela¬ 
tionships. They always ended in 
disappointment or tragedy. 

“Sheridan tries to put the 
best face on it, which is really 
what you have to do as a 
commander. You can't walk 
around hang-doggin* every¬ 
thing. You're leading people. If 
you do that then they’re going 
to go the same way, so he docs 
put that best face on it. Granted 
that isn’t necessarily the real 
face.” 

Finding Sheridan's real face 
was the interesting challenge 
for Boxleitner. Some of the se- 

40 


((The people there are 
misfits. They’re very 
dysfunctional, lonely 
characters all seeking 
something, which holds 
a continual fascination 
for me as an actor. 5 J 

—Bruce Boxleitner— 


cret was understanding 
w here Sheridan came 
from. “He was a com¬ 
pletely dedicated soldier 
and that was his life,” 
said Boxleitner. “He 
didn’t look beyond that. 

He didn’t have deep re¬ 
ligious feelings. He was 
basically Honor, Duty, 

Earth. He was just an¬ 
other starship captain 
who worked his way up 
the ranks, and during 
the Earth-Minbari War 
he achieved some valor. 

He was just a young soldier who had the 
idea to mine an asteroid field. It was proba¬ 
bly one of the only major victories they had. 

Wars are basically won by many tragic mis¬ 
takes and accidents.” 

Straczynski gave Boxleitner the idea of 
how to approach Sheridan in this situation 
“Joe is a big World War II buff and he want¬ 
ed me to think of certain historical figures 
who were our great leaders during World 
War II, especially Eisenhower,” said 
Boxleitner. “Given the title of supreme 
commander, he had to try and keep the vari¬ 
ous allies together who were bickering 
amongst themselves. Which certainly fits 
into our saga, when you took at the various 
alien races. We have to keep them together 
in some kind of order to fight against the 
common enemy." 

Sheridan's move to center stage and very 
much into the central conflict of the series 
was the crux of B5’s third season. “His 
whole world, everything he knew was 
turned upside down and wasn't valid any¬ 
more. Events thrust him into the forefront. 

In the end, he had to be the guy to kick-start 
and gel this bigger war going. He was the 
one who moved into action.” 

His enthusiasm for the story has inspired 
the best work of Boxleitncr's career. His 
portrayal of Sheridan as a man conquering 
his fears and gathering his courage against 
impossible odds, added a dynamic quality 
to the show, especially in the third season’s 
pivotal episodes, “Confessions and 

Allen encounter on tire Zocaio, a religious fantatic asks Sheridan for his 
blessing in fourth season's “Racing Mars," now a post-resurrection cult figure 



Lamentations” and 
“Z’ha’dum.” Those are 
the shows where Sheri¬ 
dan has to face down the 
Vorlon Kosh and the 
Shadow leaders on 
Z'ha'dum, knowing that 
at any moment he could 
be killed without a sec¬ 
ond thought by these 
powerful aliens, exactly 
the position Earth is in, 
in this war. 

How to tell that story 
was the key to the se¬ 
ries. BABYLON 5 is a 
drama that needs to discuss much more than 
a single person's life story. “Joe kept refer¬ 
ring to the heroic epic from Arthur to 
Ulysses,” said Boxleitner. “In all these sto¬ 
ries, you have to follow this main hero 
through the saga, seeing things through his 
eyes, through his experiences. These classic 
heroic myths and books like The Lord of 
The Rings are all influences for Joe. 

“But 1 think of the Arthurian character. 
Sheridan has founded this grand alliance, a 
Camelot, an ideal. That's what he's striving 
for. Arthur brought all the tribes of Britons 
together and then lost it. That was the hero¬ 
ic tragedy, that it crumbled. Then they 
fought to rebuild it again. That seems to be 
in every myth.” 

With these influences driving his charac¬ 
ter it’s no surprise that Boxleitner enjoyed 
the arc-driven episodes the best. “1 liked the 
big stories, the ones that kick everything 
forward a little more. 'Severed Dreams’ for 
example, was definitely one we sank a lot 
of time and money into and I was very 
pleased with the outcome. 

“Much of the storyline was cut out, just be¬ 
cause of time—that’s the thing sometimes I 
think suffered on the show. We had so many 
storylines going and so many things being ad¬ 
dressed, that sometimes editorially they had to 
be snipped. But, we couldn’t do the big ones 
every week; we needed the quieter shows. Joe 
did that intentionally too. He wrote the little 
ones, character-driven ones, and then—BA- 
BOOM! It gave us more variety.” 

The show’s format, using an 
ensemble cast is something 
Boxleitner enjoyed very much. 
“When Joe writes his charac¬ 
ters, I think he flips them upside 
down every once in a while to 
see what comes down, falls out 
of the pocket. Even G'Kar was 
a much darker character in the 
beginning and he’s emerged as 
this heroic Narn. 

“Look at Andreas Katsulas. 
He played a larger-than-life 
character. What are his bound¬ 
aries as G’Kar? They're limit¬ 
less. What does a Narn do? 
Well, whatever he wants to do. 
Unless Joe thinks it*s very 








si or its we had. The wrapup stories. And never did 
a bad job,” 

And so jusl who were (hose guys, knight 
One and Two? Noted Joe Straczynski, “Larry 
wanted to write a story about this group called 
Hureau 13, and it's a little more of what 1 wanted 
to do with (President! Clark, and I said, ‘Well, 
don’t make loo big a deal out of it because we 
have to go over in this direction,' but he wanted 
to tell a story about this one Hureau. They got 
greater play than it probably should have gotten. 
There's always been sort of a covert branch 
where Clark was setting things up for his take¬ 
over and having a covert operations area. I 
didn’t want to give it a name initially. But those 
[knights in *Sky Full of Stars') were sent by 
Bureau 13.” The organization s handiwork 
doesn't show up again until next seasons* 
"Spider in the Web.” 

Trivia: When Walter Koenig was not available 
to play Knight One. Patrick McGoohan was 
approached and he loved the role but was unable 
to do it. 


“Justice or immortality, an interesting choice” 

—Ivanova 

PEATHWALKER ** 1/2 

4/WIM HU Written by hmtry PfTliJki. Uirrctcd by Brucr 
Sflh (irrril. 

Jha'dur (Sarah Douglas) the last of her race, 
a former death camp doctor from the Dilgar War 
known as Dcalhwalkcr arrives from M inbar. She 
reappears after 3(1 years, because she has found 
the secret of immortality and is offering it to any 
race that grants her asylum and immunity. 
G'Kar's aide. Na’toth. has a blood oath to kill 
the woman, but is held back. The major powers 
all want the immortaliiy drug. Ambassador 
Kalika (Robin Curtis) demands Dealhwalker be 
put on trial as a war criminal. Sinclair gets 
caught in the middle when Dealhwalker chooses 
Barth. and Senator iltdoshi (Aki Aleong) orders 
Sinclair to send her there. Kosh has a Vurlon 
battleship kill her en route to Barth, saying that 
the younger races arc not yet ready for 
immortality. 

"Dealhwalker was a premise of Sinclair 
having to defend |the Nazi Doctor Josef) 

Mengele. a great war criminal." noted l^arry 
DiTitlio. "I had this character who made Hiller 
look like a piker. She enjoyed experimenting on 
people. She was a heinous woman. I had to come 
up with a reason why Sinclair would have to 
defend her. And I came up with the antiagathic 
[which comes out of James Rlish's Cities in 
SfNICf. \ 

“There was stuff we had to cul out. Originally 
at the end. there's a scene (i'kar is trying to get 
the antiagathic. lie goes to Dealhwalker and she 
horrifies him by asking for Na'toth's head. And he 
leaves, but he still wants the thing for his 
government. So he figures he’ll unleash Na'toth 
and he does, because she still lias Shonkar |the 

Kosh s Vorlon battlecruiser destroys the ship 

carrying "Dealhwalker” to Earth, preventing 
humans from learning the secret of immortality. 


strange. You can't get two more theatrical 
characters than Londo and G'kar. They're 
wonderful. They're my favorites. My wife 
is totally in love with G’Kur. She couldn't 
give a shit about Sheridan." 

In spite of his wife’s interest in the hero¬ 
ic Narn. Boxleitner was never tempted to 
trade places with Katsulas or any of those 
who portray aliens. “Do you know how 
many hours Andreas was in makeup? Two 
and a half! Mira was about three hours and 
Bill Mumy about the same. When I had a 
6:30 call, they'd been in since 4:30 in the 
morning. And they didn't get out until 6:30 
at night. Nobody wants to live that way,” 

Boxleitncr seemed downright enthusias¬ 
tic about the out of the way Babylonian stu¬ 
dio. “It was an actual warehouse, not a 
sound stage. Wc had constant airplanes be¬ 
cause we're right near Burbank airport. 
We're right under their flight patterns some¬ 
times. That interrupted many of our takes 
and we had to stop and do it over again. Or 
try to desperately squeeze it all in before the 
next flight. 

“Then we’re in an industrial area with a 
large gravel pit next to us. Wc had a free¬ 
way off-ramp with these big semi trucks 
barreling down the thing, lowering their 
gears. (Gear shifting noises]. That goes 
through the soundtrack. In the winter, it's 
cold and damp with giant puddles every¬ 
where. In summer, wc sweat and get occa¬ 
sional air-conditioning, but only in certain 


spots. It was wonderful, just like the old 
sound stages." 

The show is full of bluescreen work and 
imagined special effects which gave a cer¬ 
tain freedom to Boxleitncr. “Doing BABY¬ 
LON 5 is much more a theatrical experi¬ 
ence. In stage plays, you oftentimes are 
conjuring images which aren’t there and 
working with much more of an imagination 
involved. And BABYLON 5 is very much 
like that." 

It's not the first time Boxleitner worked 
on a science fiction project with this same 
appeal for him. One of his favorite jobs 
was Disney’s ’70s precursor to the digital 
revolution, TRON. “I'm particularly proud 
of having been in TRON. I think it’s appre¬ 
ciated more now, than it was at the time. 
Maybe that kind of dogs me. I'm never ap¬ 
preciated at the time. [He laughed.] TRON 
was fun. While we were making it, I 
thought. * What is this nonsense.’ 1 was do¬ 
ing westerns at the time, and it had no real¬ 
ity at all to me. In fact I turned it down. 
Then they came back and told me that Jeff 
Bridges was starring in it. 1 said. Wow I 
love him,' and that was mv whole incentive 
fordoing TRON." 

Boxleitner, 46. noted that he and Katsu¬ 
las and Jurasik were considered “oldsters” 
among the B5 cast and crew. “The crew 
were all real young. They'd say to me: ‘You 
were Tron? Oh maaan!’ And they saw it 
when they were six—on video.” □ 


Boxleltners Sheridan strides onto the station, replacing Michael O'Hara's Commander Sinclair second season, 
playing dangerous political games with Andreas Katsulas as G’Kar, Fur Ian and Peter Jurasik as Londo. 


41 

















to let you grow up.' Jotr looked at that and said. 

Why did you put that in?’ I said, ‘They're an 
alien species! We really need to show how alien 
their culture is!' and he said, ‘Are you going to 
break my arm on this one?' I said. ‘No. if you 
want to cut it. you can. I just put that in for the fun 
of it.' And so he cut it. 

“I would say that Joe Strac/ynski is just about 
the best producer I’ve worked with since (STAR 
TREK'S) Gene L. Coon." 


"We are alike, you and L We are troth, as you say, 
*lhe odd man out.'" —I.oixlo to Garibaldi 


“One thing hasn't changed: the worker always 
gels shafted. —Dock foreman 

“You should never hand someone a gun unless 
you're sure where they'll point it.** 

—Sinclair to Zen to 

By Any Means Necessary *★* 


blood oalhj against the woman, and she'll go to 
any lengths hy which to kill her What happened in 
that show, is that she goes to Death walker's 
quarters intending to kill her and Dcaihwalkcr is 
waiting for her knowing that she is going to come. 
There is a vicious fight between the two women 
which Death walker wins. As she is about to kill 
Na'toth, Sinclair comes in and basically clocks her 
in the face. We simply didn’t have enough time for 
a big fight scene between the two of them. The 
story got so massive. It was an incredibly draining 
shooting schedule, because we had so many actors 
on the set.” 

Trivia: Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was 
originally slated to play Abbut but because he w r as 
based in New York, it was too expensive to bring 
him in for a * IV story. 


Happy Days: Jerry Doyle as Security Chief 
Garibaldi, falling off the wagon in “Survivors" 
when he is suspected of political sabotage. 


Alien parents Tharg (Stephen Lee) and M'Ola 
{Tricia O'Neil) ask Sinclair to stop Dr. Franklin 
from saving their dying son in "Believers.” 


“Life has to be more than just a pulse heal. 

W hat w e hold sacred gives our lives meaning." 

—Sinclair 

Believers *** 

4/27/19*4. #105 Written by IhtU (ierrokt. Ihrrrlrd h> Rirlurd 
t’—I p l o w . 

Dr. Franklin faces a moral dilemma when alien 
parents. M'Ola (Tricia O'Neil) and Iharg 
(Stephen Lee) refuse to let Dr. Franklin perform 
surgery on their dying son. Shim (Jonathon 
Kaplan). They believe that if their son's body is 
punelured his soul will escape and that without his 
spirit he wouldn't be alive anyway. Sinclair 
upholds the parents rights and forbids Franklin to 
operate, but the real issue is that Franklin is as 
much of a fanatic about his belief in saving 
physical life ai any cost as the parents arc. lie 
thinks his belief lakes precedence and disobeys a 
direct order, and operates anyway. The parents arc 
horrified by what he's done and eventually kill the 
boy. 

“The first lime I saw the final cut I was a little 
taken aback because everything was played kind 
of in a monotone," said David Gcnold. “The 
performances weren't as intense as I had been 
imagining, I thought Franklin was a little stale. I 
was a little taken aback hut the more I saw it, I 
began to notice the subtleties and nuances in what 
had been going on and I began to appreciate (hat a 
lot more. The audience doesn't watch these 
episodes just once and so you w ant there to be 
things for (hem to discover when (hey come back 
to it. I was particularly taken by the performances 
of the parcnls. I thought they did the best job in 
the whole show and the boy was quite talented 
too. I never saw any of them without their make¬ 
up. Just very nice people.” 

Recalling a scene he wrote that was cut from 
the episode. David Gcrrold said, “There's a 
moment where the parents are saying ‘Goodbye* 
and the father says, ’When you were horn, you 
were so little! We had the choice ol eating you or 
letting you grow up. Your mother said there 
wouldn’t lie enough to go around, so we decided 


Survivor s_ _ _** 

5/4 i IV*4. #111 Writlrn In Mark Scull /Jaw. Him led hi Jim 
Jcihn^iufi. 

fhe station is in an uproar due to an 
impending visit by President Santiago. The station 
gels new fighter w ings to beef up security and 
Lianna Kemmer (Elaine Thomas) (he president's 
personal security officer comes to B5 to make sure 
security are up to standards. When Cobra Bay 12 
explodes, the bomber names Garibaldi with his 
dying breath. Lianna believes Garibaldi is behind 
the bombing To clear his name. Garibaldi goes on 
the run, has various adventures until finally, he 
suspects Cutter (Tom Donaldson) one of Lianna's 
men as being responsible but she refuses to 
believe him As the President's ship is about to 
dock Garibaldi insists they check it again. Cutter 
shoots Lianna and Garibaldi fights him and tells 
Ivanova to abort the drop before the President can 
dock. The President visits, and finally. Garibaldi 
and Lianna restore their relationship. 

“I like Jerry very much." said director Jim 
Johnston. “I think he's go) a good character and 
he's a good actor. I think he's got a good take on 
that character and you do believe that that's him 
and he’s got certain vulnerabilities (hat he shows 
in this character. 1 think it was fun for him because 
we did improvise a lot on that in terms of how he 
would play that once he had started drinking 
again, so 1 think that's a very good show loo.” 

Our first glimpse of the Shadows in battle, blasting 
the raiders to steal the Eye for Londo to gain the 
Centauri throne in “Signs and Portents.” 


“What do you wan I?" 

—Mnrdcn's question to each 
of the Ambassadors 

“They’re here!" 

—Uelcnn 

Signs an d Portents * * * * 

5 IH IW4 §11 ft Written by J. \licbarl Slnr/)iwb. Ihrtdrd by 
janrt (irrtL 

Londo obtains The Eye* a priceless Centauri 
artifact that Lord Kiro (Gerril Graham) wants in 


5/11/1994. #114 Writlrn by Kathryn Drmnan. thmrtrd by Jim 
J«baMa* 

More trouble in the docking hays, an accident 
due to faulty equipment kills a worker and sets oil 
an illegal strike, The issue is more money, but not 
pay raises. Guild representative Neeoma Connally 
(Katy Boyer) demands Ihey rehab the docking 
equipment and hire more workers because ihey 
are so short-handed. Senator Hidoshi (Aki 
Aleong) sends in Orin Zento (John Snyder) a 
hardline labor negotiator to resolve the dispute. 
Zento threatens to invoke the Rush Aci which 
allows military troops to arrest strikers. Sinclair 
secs no way to avoid violence until he finds a 
loophole in the rules and he just reallocates some 
of the slation's military funds (o meet their 
demands. 

Director Jim Johnston recalled working wilh 
Michael O'Hare, “Michael, nice guy that he is, I 
think was just overwhelmed by the amount of 
dialogue that he had every week. I don'i ihink he 
ever led a scries like that, which means that in a 
fit) page script, the Captain probably has a third of 
it and it was hard for him lo just get out all those 
things, lei alone act. Whereas Bruce (Boxlcilner|. 
who has been in many, many scries, was much 
more used lo ingesting five or six pages and 
spitting them out in the next day. So I think it was 
very tough on Michael. I know he tried very hard 
and we had a dialogue coach for him to help him 
remember his lines.” 


leads the Narn on the station in a religious 
ceremony in “By Any Means Necessary,” as 
docking bay workers threaten a strike action. 


One aspect of the series that impressed 
Johnston was the fact that the station constantly 
needed maintenance "We believe that things are 
always leaking and breaking," he said. 
“Somebody's always welding, turning a wrench 
because out there in space it's just like our houses 
and cars, and it's going to leak oil and boil over. 
The nice thing about H5 is that I think they reali/e 
and play with it. It's one of the things that are 
going to be with us in the future. It's an imperfect 
world" 




























solving. 

An important pro¬ 
duction change also oc¬ 
curred that was not im¬ 
mediately visible in the 
series, but when Foun¬ 
dation Imaging tried to 
negotiate a better finan¬ 
cial deal, this opened 
the door for Douglas 
Netter to bring in his 
own “in-house" digital 
effects facility, Netter 
Digital Entertainment 
Inc. which was actually 
formed in 1979. 

Straczynski got to 
announce the fourth sea¬ 
son renewal in front a 
crowd of 2,000 British 
fans at the Wolf 359 
convention in Black¬ 
pool, England in June, 

1 996, He read a tele¬ 
gram he had just re¬ 
ceived and it said, “Joe, 
we got the pickup!" 

Filming of the fourth 
season began in August 
1996. By December, 

Straczynski began seri¬ 
ously considering about 
collapsing the five- 
year story into four 
seasons. In an inter¬ 
view just prior to the 
fourth season. Stra¬ 
czynski noted, “I'm 
always trying to keep 
one foot, if you will, 
in the Babylon 5 uni¬ 
verse and one foot in the real world. I’ve 
been cognizant of the changing syndication 
marketplace and this year towards the end 
of the season I split a few things forward 
slightly to give me a little more there at the 
back—there are basically three major 
themes left to play out after the end of year 
three. Usually 1 do one major theme, then I 
give you a break for a while with some per¬ 
sonal stories, then I wrap up slowly the next 
major theme, and then on to the next one. It 
is altogether possible to take those three 
themes and collapse them down into one 
year and plug out some of the filler stuff 
and do the whole thing in one year. If they 
say it’s four, end of discussion, it then be¬ 
comes my responsibility to end this story 
where 1 want to end it." 

Long-time television veteran Boxleitncr 
was constantly irritated by the situation, and 
in-between seasons he vented his frustra¬ 
tion. “I just wish we didn’t have to live un¬ 
der this paranoia of ‘Will we be back?* I 
know the people at VOYAGER and DS9 
aren't worried. We always have this uphill 
battle, and we never know if we’ll be 
picked up. It’s a five-year saga, but the guys 
in the suits in those offices, they could give 


a damn about your five- 
year saga. It could be a 
two-year saga or a 
three-year saga. Some¬ 
how, we manage to keep 
plunging on." 

In a genuine concern 
that the scries would not 
survive to see a fifth 
season, it was decided 
that the final episode, 
“Sleeping in Light," 
should be filmed fourth 
season. But fate raised 
its hand and pushed that 
story onto the shelves 
for a year. 

According to produc¬ 
er John Copeland, the 
concern of whether or 
not the series would 
have a fifth season was 
because “at the end of 
the third year with the 
launch of the Warner 
Bros network and Unit¬ 
ed Paramount Network 
(UPN) the available 
hours for syndicated 
programming were rap¬ 
idly disappearing. How¬ 
ever things worked out 
for that year, but from 
(he fourth to the fifth 
there were no slots out 
there and it looked pret¬ 
ty grim. Joe and I pretty 
much resigned our¬ 
selves to the fact that 
BABYLON 5 would 
likely be over after sea¬ 
son four. Doug Netter never gave up and 
was really responsible for us winding up on 
TNT." 

In February 1997. Babylonian got the or¬ 
der from TNT for two TV movies: a prequel 
story titled IN THE BEGINNING and 
THIRDSPACE. When the fourth season 
finished filming, THIRDSPACE immedi¬ 
ately went into production and was fol¬ 
lowed by IN THE BEGINNING. 

THIRDSPACE was a story that took 
place early in the fourth season, somewhere 
between “Into the Fire” and “Moments of 
Transition.” Because the prcquel took place 
more than 10 years before Babylon 5, the 
station sets needed to be used first in 
THIRDSPACE before reconfiguring the 
soundstages for fresh, new locations in IN 
THE BEGINNING. 

After the films were completed, the long 
wait for renewal kept everyone anxious. In 
a reprieve engagement, the entire cast and 
Joe Straczynski and John Copeland were 
invited to the biggest Babylon 5 convention 
bash ever. Wolf 359 in Blackpool, England. 
The TNT network had acquired not just the 
reruns of the first four seasons and the 
movies but also commissioned the fifth sea- 


order lo claim the Ccniauri throne. Lady Ladira 
(Fredi Olster) has a premonition of Babylon 5 
being destroyed. There is an increase in raider 
activity which turns out to be a dodge to draw 
the fighters away from the ship stealing the Lye 
and kidnapping Kiro. ( his is the first 
appearance by Mordcn (td Wasser) who asks all 
the ambassadors a question. “What do you 
want?” 

Being the first director to work with lid 
Wasser as Mordcn, Janet Greek remarked, “1 
remember that the very end of that when we were 
shooting him silling alone in the room talking to 
(he Shadows—at the time J shot that, we didn’t 
know exactly whal the Shadows were going to 
look like, so I had a really hard time. I had to 
make something up to tell him to think about, 
because wc didn't know what they would be or if 
(here would he sound or not. We just didn't know 
yet. Foundation Imaging and Joe were talking and 
experimenting with a lot of things that might 
work. We shot that and we all kind of went, 'Well, 

I guess we'll have to wait until we see it on TV to 
see what this will really be like.”' 


"You cannot run away from your own heart, 
Susitcka, not even in space.” —Kahbi 

TKO * 1/2 

5/25/19*4. #119 Writlrn bv i»irrv Dffillio. Dirrcfrd to John 
Ulan. 

Walker Smith (Greg McKinney), an old friend 
of Garibaldi’s shows up wanting to be the first 
human to participate in an alien combat sport. AID 
the different aliens agree on one thing: they don’t 
want humans in the game. The Mula-Do (Soon- 
Teck Oh), who is in charge of the contest, does 
not allow Smith to participate. Intrigued by 
Smith's audacity and courage, an alien named 
Caliban (Don Stroud) approaches WulkeT and (ells 
him how to make a challenge and enter the 
games. Smith’s victory creates a new respect for 
humans. Rabbi Rostov ( Theodore Bikel) visits 
Ivanova lo help her deal with her father’s recent 
death. 

"When 1 originally pitched ‘TKO,’ they threw 
me out of the office,” chuckled Larry DiTillio. 
“‘We can’t do this whole arena with people 
screaming and yelling and guys beating each other 
up,’ {the producers said). I said ‘Well, okay. I’ll 
come up with another story.’ Hut, in the interim 
somehow Jim | Johnston) got a copy of the script, 
and went crazy. He said. 'I want to do this. I know 
exactly how to do this.’ He went to Doug | Netter] 
and he pitched it. He said, *1 can do this whole 
story. I'll show you how we’ll do this set. We'll 
have this cone of light above the thing.’ He got 
Doug so excited, that Doug came back lo me and 
told me to go ahead and do that story. So ] sat 
down to do it, and I was looking for a place to put 
that Ivanova shiva story, and Joe said, 'Why don't 
you put it there. It will make a nice counterpoint 
and you'll have a very violent story and a very 

An alien objects to humans joining combat sport 
In "1X0,” telling Walker Smith “You intrude on 
our worlds and make a mockery of our customs.” 



U BABYLON 5 will be 
around forever. Joe’s 
done something like 
Lord of the Rings for 
TV science fiction. 
Anything after this will 
just be a copy. 5 9 

—Actress Patricia Tallman— 



Peter Jurasik as Centaur! 
Ambassador Londo 
Mollari. Inset: Straczynski's 
script concept as sketched 
by designer Peter Ledger 


43 



















gentle story.' I'm not quite sure that worked, hut it 
was an interesting experiment, 

"By that time Jim was doing another episode 
whieh he was propping, and he said I can do 
both*' And they said. 'No you can't, because you 
can't prep and shoot at the same time.’ So they 
gave it to John |Flinn|. 

"I would have liked to pul a little more savagery 
in it—though it was pretty savage as it was. 
Theodore Bike I was everything I wanted out of that 
part, and was a wonderful man to work with.” 


“What mutters is that he strives for the 
perfection of his soul and the salvation of his 
race and that he has never wavered or lost 
faith.” —Itelenn 

Grail *★ 

H 1WM. #109 tlrillrn by I lurbty Vlw\. Ihmlrct by Kit haul 
Cura pt on 

Aldous Gajic (David Warner) is a traveler 
seeking the Holy Grail, hut what he finds is 
something that is killing Lurkers on the station. 
Evidence points to Kush hut a criminal named 
Deuce (William Sanderson) is using a Na'ka’Lcen 
feeder disguised in a Vorlon encounter suit to do 
the killings. Jinxo (Tom Hrookcrs). a lurker Gajic 
takes under his wing, got his name because he’s 
worked on the construction of every Babylon 
station and it was destroyed or disappeared as soon 
as he left. Gajie convinces him he was just lucky to 
have escaped four limes and has some destiny to 
fulfill. The feeder won't kill Gajic hut when Deuce 
kills him, Jinxo lakes up the Quest. 

Arthun.in themes permeated in this story by 
freelancer Christy Marx. Surprisingly, she was 
given a bare outline to construct her story. “Joe 
handed out premises,” explained Marx. “He had 
several sentences, simply to the effect of ‘this 
person conies to B5 looking for the Grail.' Joe 
handed if to me because I 'd spent the previous 
couple of years researching the Grail in order to 
design and write my Sierra Online and PC 
computer game. 'Conquests Of Camelol: King 
Arthur and the Search for the Grail.' So he figured 
I had to be the expert on the subject.” 

Marx admitted that she was disappointed by 
the results of this episode. “They fired the director, 
then gave him my episode to do as his final 
hurrah,” explained Marx. “He was there 
physically, but didn't give a shit about what he 
was doing and it show ed.” 



The Nakaleen feeder that's killing Lurkers on the 
station in “Grail," an early example of Foundation 
Imaging's groundbreaking CGI creature effects. 


"I've always been proud lo be a member of 
Earth force hut right now I'd sooner serve the 
Minhari. Al least they have a sense of honor.” 

—Ivanova lo Garibldi 

Eyes ** 

7 U !W*. #122 Wnttrn hy l*rry MTillto. Itirrrtwi by Jim 
InhmsUm, 

Eafthforcc\ Internal Affairs, nicknamed 


son so (hat the saga 
could have its proper 
conclusion. As the am¬ 
phitheater was filled 
with the thundering 
cheers and applause of 
3.5(H) grateful and loyal 
viewers, it was a thrill¬ 
ing, triumphant moment 
for Strac/.vnski and 26 
cast members on slage. 

"We broke into the 
pub and celebrated!" 
laughed Boxlcitner, re¬ 
calling the moment. 

However, backstage, 
emotional turmoil was 
building among the ac¬ 
tors. They still needed 
to confront the cold, 
hard reality of renegoti¬ 
ating their contracts. 

And not everyone was 
successful in this task. 

In the move from the 
PTEN network, to direct 
syndication, and to 
TNT, B5*s very frugal 
budget was trimmed 
even more. Pay scales 
were different and the 
normal shooting sched¬ 
ule of seven days for 
each episode was 
shortened to six 
days. According to 
Peter Jurasik, the 
renegotiation process 
was even more dire 
than anyone imag¬ 
ined. 

“All the contractual stuff went down 
when we were in Wolf 359.” said Jurasik. 
“They were threatening to fire Andreas 
[Katsulas| and me and Bruce (Boxlcitner). 
We all got our notices if we wouldn't sign 
that night.” 

Actress Claudia Christian was unable lo 
arrive at an agreement that would allow her 
lo do both a movie and the fifth season. 
Straczynski contended that although Christ¬ 
ian verbally continued to assure that she 
wanted to be in the fifth season, she had 
failed to respond to repeated calls for her to 
sign on before the contract deadlines ex¬ 
pired. It was clear, he said, that she wanted 
to do movies. 

Christian said the actors were asked to 
give up their residuals for the fifth season. 
That Straczynski did offer her the lime off 
she requested so that she could go off and 
do a film, but he could not put that in writ¬ 
ing. In the end, deadlines were missed and 
there was a miscommunication between her 
and her agent. Warner Bros told her agent 
that the BABYLON 5 offer was withdrawn. 
Her assertion was that she was fired. 

A year later, in the summer 1998 issue of 
the now-defunct SF media magazine Sci-l t 


invasion , Christian ad¬ 
mitted that she did. in 
fact, quit the show. 
Christian felt that her 
departure did not affect 
the show, .She said that 
Straczynski did not have 
a storyline for the fifth 
season and did not feel 
there was much for her 
to do. The bottom line 
was she did not want to 
experience another year 
of “not having any chal¬ 
lenges." 

Someone else had to 
be hired to take over the 
command of Babylon 5 
because John Sheridan 
had been promoted to 
being the President of a 
new Galactic Alliance. 
Replacing what surely 
would have been Cap¬ 
tain Ivanova was actress 
Tracy Scoggins as Cap¬ 
tain Elizabeth Loch ley. 
Ironically, the transition 
between characters was 
actually very smooth. 
Ivanova was written out 
as having taken com¬ 
mand of a battlecruiser 
while Sheridan hired a 
woman from his distant 
past. 

“1 was really sur¬ 
prised that Claudia was¬ 
n’t coming hack,” re¬ 
marked Patricia Tail- 
man. **lt was in the 
Green Room (at the convention). I went up 
there and Bruce was very emotional. He 
said, 'Pat, Claudia is leaving us!* I said, 
'What?' He sent me out to the fire escape to 
tell me. He said, 'Yeah, it's the contract ne¬ 
gotiations and she needs out because she's 
doing this movie and they won't let her out 
to do this movie so she's not going to come 
back to (he show.' He was jus! crushed. And 
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't imagine 
BABYLON 5 without Claudia and I think it 
suffered without Claudia. That’s my opin¬ 
ion." 

“I wished she could have stayed," said 
Boxlcitner. “Claudia is still a rich part of the 
Babylon 5 story.” 

Because “Sleeping in Lighl" was filmed 
at the end of the fourth season, that meant 
that the actual final episode filmed was its 
penultimate story, “Objects at Rest." But 
life did not stop for the Babylonian produc¬ 
ers. TNT commissioned two additional 
films: RIVER OF SOULS, which revisited 
the Soul Hunters from the first season and 
A CALL TO ARMS, which served as a 
transition film into CRUSADE, a new TNT 
series (hat also took place in the B5 uni¬ 
verse which began airing June 1999. A 


i £ Usually I do one ma¬ 
jor theme, then I give 
you a break for a while 
with personal stories, 
then I wrap up slowly 
the next major theme, 
then on to the next. 99 

—Writer Joe Straczynski 



Mira Furlan as Minbari 
Ambassador Delenn. Inset: 

Straczynskis original 
character concept skecthed 
by designer Peter Ledger. 


44 


































CALL TO ARMS introduced the Excalibur 
spacecraft and two members of the series’ 
cast. Unfortunately, CRUSADE was can¬ 
celled by TNT at 13 of the planned 22 
episodes over creative differences between 
the network and the series' producers. 

In deconstructing BABYLON 5’s suc¬ 
cess, we can point to several items: 
Straczynski presented a novel for television 
w ith 110 segments containing a diverse, ac¬ 
cessible cast with a galactic landscape as 
the platform to present them. Foundation 
imaging and Netter Digital's special effects 
technology played an integral role in mak¬ 
ing the universe exciting, “cool looking" 
and physically 3-D. Straczynski developed 
multi-faceted, original characters. Mystery 
and intrigue were integral storytelling tools 
that were used throughout the series. 

Importantly, Slraczynski did a very good 
job of keeping people guessing about every 
character’s fate on the show. What 
Straczynski did that was different from any 
other dramatic show, is he weaved charac¬ 
ters in and out of the tapestry with foresight 
and planning, while along the way, adjust¬ 
ing to the realities of linear film production. 
This meant that the so-called “pre-planned” 
five year saga was constantly being shuf¬ 
fled, juggled behind the scenes, very likely 
more than we will ever know. 

“Any novelist knows that when you go 
from outline to book things take on a life of 
their own,*’ explained Straczynski. “And 
characters you felt would be just back¬ 
ground characters move to the foreground. 


And what first you thought the story was 
about becomes something else. This is nat¬ 
ural progression in any novel. The differ¬ 
ence is you’re seeing a novel in progress 
rather than the final finished product.’’ Be¬ 
cause Straczynski was well aware of this 
process, he did not write out his outlines in 
great detail. “[It] was not written out in spe¬ 
cific detail until I got this series. You learn 
things when you're into a show like this. 

“I like being surprised,” Straczynski 
continued. “I love when I watch a show that 
I don't know what the hell is going to hap¬ 
pen next. MILL STREET BLUES was a 
show that was that way for me. My job is 
that of the magician. I have to keep you 
watching my hand as they bring the ele¬ 
phant on stage." 

For example, Straczynski was particular¬ 
ly proud that no one guessed the true facts 
surrounding the fate of Babylon 4, as re¬ 
vealed in the two-partcr “War Without 
End," although many clues were planted in 
“Babylon Squared.” "All the clues were 
there in plain sight but no one saw what 
they were. You misread dues and after you 
see the result you go back [to ‘Babylon 
Squared'j and suddenly it all makes sense.” 

The cast and crew especially enjoyed the 
plot twists that Straczynski developed. 
They were as excited as devout fans were in 
catching the next episode. Jeffrey Wiilerth, 
producer’s associate on the show, provided 
a unique perspective on how much the crew 
anticipated each week’s release. "I would 
say in the third and fourth season, when 
most fans would say the story arc was get¬ 
ting really good, many of the crew, myself 
included, would do what we could to be 
among the first to get a glimpse of the 
scripts so we could sit down and read it!” 
said Wiilerth. "There was a great deal of ex¬ 
citement about what was going on. The sto¬ 
ry arc was getting so good, so interesting. 
Joe’s writing was just peaking, it was just 


A bomb blasts the station's core shuttle in second 
season ender “The Fall of Night.” Inset: Designer 
Ledger's sketch of Straczynski's original concept. 


“Byes” is investigating all off-world military 
officers to check on loyalty and Col Ari Ben Zayn 
(Gregory Martini who was high on the list to 
command B5, believes Sinclair sold out Earth lo 
the Minbari during the war and that's why he got 
the job. Earthforce won’t back Sinclair against 
Zayn for political reasons. Zayn wants his Psi- 
Cop, I tarriman (iray (Jeffrey Comhs) to scan all 
the officers but Sinclair convinces Gray to scan 
I he Colonel instead and they find out he’s been 
using the investigation as an excuse to lake control 
of the station. Lcnnicr offers to assemble 
Garibaldi's antique motorcycle but becomes mi 
absorbed in the task, he finishes the bike while 
Garibaldi is busy with the IA investigation. 
Ivanova refuses to be scanned. She threatens to 
resign over the mailer, gets drunk and wrecks the 
bar in a fight. 

“'Byes' had to be written in five days and put 
right into production," said Larry DiTillio. “That 
was because a script fell out, Jew got very sick and 
was just flat on his hack. It had lo use only one or 
two sets ul most, and have one or two characters. I 
tell you it is probably my worst script. It came oul 
better lhan any of us thought it would. And it did 
do something for an audience that maybe came 
late to the fust season. They got a quick glance of 
everything that happened that season. If you really 
look at 'Byes,* everything is given in very quick 
Hashes. Here's when we went out to B4. Here's 
the labor strike All of that stuff is in there. It came 
out okay " 

“‘Eyes' was kind of a nasty one." recalled Jim 
Johnston. “Of all the ones I did it was probably the 
most difficult because the actor who played the 
Colonel was having a hard time in his life. He had 
left his wife for his female agent and then his 
female agent had kicked him out. I think he was 
living in his car. lie was having an emotional 
roller coaster and that was present every day in the 
script. We actually had to re-shoot a couple of 
scenes, which is something you hardly ever do on 
B5." 

Trivia: MILLENNIUM star Lance Henrickson 
was Larry DiTillio's original choice for the 
Colonel. 



Col. Ari Ben Zayn (Gregory Martin) of Earthforce's 
Internal Affairs, nicknamed “Eyes," interrogates 
Sinclair, suspected of selling out to the Minbari. 


“You talk like a Minbari, Commander." 

—Neroon 

Legacies ** 

7/2IMW4, i 115 Written by DX\ hntiQi, Hurtled by Urucr 
SrUb (*rrrn. 

A young girl is caught for shoplifting, and is 
identified as an unregistered telepath. Ivanova and 
Talia disagree over what to do with her. When the 
body of the Minbari's greatest hero vanishes while 
lying in state on the station, tension runs high 
between Neroon (John Vickery) and the humans, 
as they search for the perpetrator. When Alisa 
scans Delenn and finds out what really happened, 
she (ells Sinclair. Delenn had the body cremated as 
he had wished and orders Neroon to support her 


45 




















story that it is a religious miracle or she will 
destroy his whole clan. Alisa decides to accept 
l)c linn's otter to go lo Mmhar and study with 
their lelepaths. Beginnings of a friendship between 
Ivanova and Talia Winters emerges. 

“Dorothy Fontana is a writer who likes to 
write about human relationships," said DiTillio. “1 
thought she did very welt. She has a good sense of 
history. (Hal! the freelancers, Dorothy probably 
tit in the best, because she is a veteran. She 
seemed to catch on lo the characters and t think 
she added on something for Delcnn. While I did 
do some rewriting on that, it s mostly her script. 
She also has a ginnl sense of pageantry,” 

This episode marked Bruce Seth Green's 
final contribution to the series. Filming 
exclusively on the station was too 
claustrophobic for his tastes. “It drove me crazy 
that the show was inside all the time,” said 
Green “I just wasn't used to it. On every show 
I'd ever done, if it was a seven-day episode, it 
would be three days in and four days out or five 
days in and two days out. It just got very 
claustrophobic and it started getting stale. 
BABYI.ON 3 was the first show that I ever 
worked on that was lolally buttoned down. 
Because you have so many characters and so 
many sets, everything's there and everything's 
under control. You don’t ever shoot an extra 
hour in any day because the producer says, 

'Well, you'll be back in the same place 
tomorrow, just pick it up tomorrow.* So it 
becomes very regular. That's why I lost interest, 

It really is just too easy. I like to get outside.” 



Garibaldi and the Pak'Ma'Ra ambassador of the 
carrion eaters search for the missing corpse of 
one of Mlnbar’s greatest heroes in “Legacies" 


“ The third principle of sentient life is the 
capacity for self-sacrifice, the conscious ability 
to override evolution and self-preservation Tor 
a cause, a friend, a loved one.” _Draal 

A Voice in the 

Wilderness (PT. i> **** 

727 |W4. #12® Wntlrn by J. Mivhirl Slnfornii, (hm ln) by 
Jinrl (»rrrlL 

The survey ship checking out seismic 
activity on Epsilon 3. sets off defense 
mechanisms from w ithin the world. One of the 
survey ship's pictures shows a fissure on the 
surface five miles deep. Draal (Louis Turcnne), 
an old mentor visiting Delcnn and Sinclair 
witnesses a strange apparition, a mysterious 
figure pleading for help When Sinclair and 
Ivanova take a shuttle into the fissure to 
investigate, ihcy discover gigantic alien 
machinery hurled beneath the surface, an 
incredible defense system more powerful than 
anything known. They find Varn {Curt Lowcns), 
a dying alien hooked up to the machines, and 
bring him back to the station's Med Lab The 
struggle for Mars’ independence breaks nut into 
open revolt. Garibaldi frantically tries to contact 
the woman he left behind there. 


fantastic.” 

Peter Jurasik agreed 
wholeheartedly. “Most 
of the time, you would 
read a script with an eye 
to vour character, hut 
honest to God, when the 
scripts would come in, I 
was page turning, read¬ 
ing 1 crything.” 

Added Bruce Box- 
leitner, “The fun of the 
show—period—was I 
couldn't wait for (he 
next script to see where 
we were going. I have 
to say Joe continually 
surprised me in the 
depth of the storylines. 

And where we were go¬ 
ing, and what each char¬ 
acter was going to go 
through. He made it in¬ 
teresting to do." 

At the end of the sec¬ 
ond season, after Larry 
DiTillio's final script, 

“Knives.” Straczynski 
began something that 
not even he could have 
predicted or expected 
to accomplish: a script¬ 
ing marathon that 
stretched into a total 
of 4K scripts that 
were exclusively— 
save for one epi¬ 
sode—written by 
him. The exception 
in this script-a-thon, 
was that in the mid¬ 
dle of the fifth season, Straczynski invited 
famed British author Neil Gaiman to write 
“Day of the Dead.” And Marian Lllison con¬ 
tributed the story for “A View from the 
Gallery.” In total, J. Michael Straczynski 
wrote ^1 of the 110 episodes of BABYLON 
5. And everyone who worked with him was 
completely, utterly astonished. 

“joe could turn out scripts faster than we 
could produce them,” remarked director 
David Lagle. “They were damn good. The 
quality of the writing, the thoughtfulness of 
how the stories worked out. what the dia¬ 
logue was, how the characters developed, 
where they were going, was amazing.” 

“It wasn't intentional,” Straczynski can¬ 
didly admitted. In the middle of the third 
season, after writing everything himself, he 
finally looked up from his computer and 
thought, “Okay, now I can start bringing in 
a couple of other writers.” But the opportu¬ 
nity to have a single-writer marathon for an 
entire season occured to someone and they 
mentioned it to him. “At which point 1 was 
screwed,” said Straczynski. “Because when 
you lay down any kind of a challenge in 
front of me, I have to accept it. And I just 
fired the person who told me, because it 


was hell! But when 
someone says. ‘Well, 
this has never been done 
before in the entire his¬ 
tory of American televi¬ 
sion; no one's ever writ¬ 
ten 22 before out of the 
whole season/ I was 
doomed. I had to do it.” 
However, the scripting 
marathon was not just 
because Straczynski 
wanted to break records. 
The main story arc. 
which only he wrote, 
was heating up to such a 
level that the author de¬ 
cided he should write 
everything. Serving as 
his own story editor ac¬ 
tually made running the 
show easier (much to 
Larry DiTillio’s dis¬ 
may), than farming out 
a premise to a free¬ 
lancer. “It actually takes 
longer to get a freelance 
script through the 
pipeline than to write 
one myself,” Straczyn¬ 
ski explained. 

For an evaluation of 
this ground-breaking SF 
TV epic, many of the in¬ 
dividuals w ho worked 
on the show supplied 
their views. “It's a sci¬ 
ence fiction novel for 
television that you don't 
necessarily have to be a 
SF fan to enjoy,” said 
Bruce Boxleitner. “People like an interest¬ 
ing storyline. 1 think it has enough there in 
the characters and relationships to attract 
just about anybody. 1 think you have a com¬ 
plete novel. That's basically what J MS set 
out to do. And he accomplished it! It was a 
tough road doing it.” 

“I think he gave a really good package,” 
agreed Julie Caitiin Brown, who played 
Narn Na'Toth “We'll be enjoying it for a 
very long time because there's so many lay¬ 
ers. You can watch it again and again and 
keep finding nuances that you didn't see be¬ 
fore. It ’s going to live for a long time in 
video land.” 

“1 think JMS has given us an epic sci¬ 
ence fiction saga with more heart and soul, 
courage and depth, than anyone else has 
ever attempted let alone achieved,” said 
David Gerrold. 

Noted Peter Jurasik, “What Joe gave you 
is what he set out to do. He gave you a won¬ 
derful rich story filled with truly memo¬ 
rable people and characters that will live in¬ 
side you. He did what all good stories and 
what all good art tries to do, present some¬ 
thing that helps us examine who we are and 
how we interact, and reflects our world.” 


i fi What you thought the 
story was about be¬ 
comes something else. 
This is natural in any 
novel. The difference is 
you're seeing a novel 
in progress. 55 

- Writer Joe Straczynski — 



Jeffrey Willerth as Kosh, 
the Vorlon Ambassador. 
Inset: Straczynski’s script 
concept as sketched by 
designer Peter Ledger. 


46 




























Sinclair and Ivanova investigate an incredibly 
powerful subterranean alien defense system on 
Epsilon 3, an homage to FORBIDDEN PLANET. 

In one shut of the Great Machine's interior, the 
camera tills downward from the ceiling and we 
witness the planet-sized machinery at work as 
Sinclair and Ivanova walk across a bridge. 
Knowledgeable fans will recognize the similarity 
between this shot and a 1^56 SI* classic film. The 
allusion was not accidental. “They had me watch 
FORBIDDEN PLANET/’ said director Janet 
Greek, “it was really sort of a homage to that, and 
we talked a lot about how to do that. There were 
lots of conversations and lots of drawings about 
how this was all going to look and how we were 
going to do it. I think it just turned out really 
well/* 

Larry DiTillio noted that veteran actor Mark 
Ham ill was slated for a role in a discarded 
conception of this two-parler. “He was 
supposed to be a member of the original race 
that had put the Great Machine there,” said 
DiTillio. “To be honest to Joe, and to applaud 
Joe, he said, ‘I don’t realty like this two-parter. 
This is not the way I wanted this to come out. I 
don't want to film it. I’ll just shelve it. Mark 
Hamill saw it and said. It’s not the quality of 
the episode I want it to be.’ Joe had lu come up 
with another episode. And that's what we saw, 
‘Voice in the Wilderness. ’That script was just 
completely changed from Joe’s original draft of 
it." 


“The machine that controls this planet needs a 
mind to run it or it will destroy itself and 
Babylon 5 along with it” — Delenn 

A Voice in the 

Wilderness (Pt. 2» *★* 1/2 

8/.V1W4. #121 Written hy J. Michael Slrar/yntki. I>irrtied h> 
Janet (imk. 

Varn's (Curt Lnwcns) race have been dead for 
5(10 years except for a violent faction that has been 

Babylon 5 and an Earthforce Battleship In orbit 
around Epsilon 3, vying for the ultimate power in 
the universe in "A Voice in the Wilderness, II." 


which is going to be perceived as such 
more and more with the passing of time. 
No one's done anything like it before, and 
I don’t know if anyone will ever try it 
again. 

“I was asked to speak at MIT [Massa¬ 
chusetts Institute of Technology) a few 
months back, and the big gun academics at 
the Media Lab and elsewhere stated that 
there arc three seminal American SF series: 
the original STAR TREK, TWILIGHT 
ZONE, and BABYLON 5. If that's true, 
that's one hell of an accomplishment. 

*it took STAR TREK nearly 20 years to 
hit this kind of response, but B5 still doesn’t 
have the penetration in the popular culture 
that TREK had at that point. The impact the 
show has made is narrow, but deep. It was a 
massive strike into the popular culture, 
which will only continue to widen with the 
passage of time. 

“For myself, I wanted to tell a story that, 
once seen, you would put on the shelf and 
lake down from time to lime, to enjoy with 
a new perspective every few years, as I pe¬ 
riodically reread Lord of the Rings or the 
Foundation books or Childhood's End . It is 
a contemporary myth that asks questions 
that will be as relevant in the coming centu¬ 
ry as they are today. 

“Some chapters here and there may be 
uneven, but on balance, it is a story well 
told, about characters wc care about, and 
which causes us to reflect on our own lives, 
on who we are, and where we’re going, and 
I don't think any writer can reasonably ask 
for much more than that.” □ 


Babylon 5, groundbreaking CGI 
by Foundation Imaging. Above: 
Designer Peter Ledger's original 
concepts were strikingly different. 


“He gave his actors a challenge of devel¬ 
oping in such an interesting way,” said Wal¬ 
ter Koenig who played Psi Cop Bestcr. “I 
think it's a wonderful novel. When you see 
it in reruns in 10 years from now, it won’t 
feel dated.” 

“An amazing piece of work that was¬ 
n't able to reach its full potential, mainly 
due to the indecision of WB and related 
problems,” said screenwriter Christy 
Marx. “The scries would have benefited 
tremendously had Joe been able to pace it 
and tell it the way it was originally in¬ 
tended. Instead, he had to cram events of 
season four and five into season four, 
then was left with a weaker season five. 
Personally, I would have preferred a little 
less talking heads and more action over¬ 
all. but it was a monumental achievement 
to do such a long and complex story arc 
across five years. And he created two of 
the richest characters on TV—Londo and 
G’Kar.” 

“BABYLON 5 will be around forever,” 
said Patricia Tallman. “Joe's done some¬ 
thing like Lord of the Rings for TV science 
fiction. 1 think it's extraordinarily unusual. 
I'm very proud of it. Anything after this will 
just be a copy. They’ll try to copy what he 
did.” 

For the final word on BABYLON 5, 
the series' executive producer and author, 
J. Michael Straczynski intoned, “I think 
we have something quite extraordinary. 


47 



















The story behind casting the acting talent that 
brought Straczynski’s epic SF vision vividly to life. 


By Frank Garcia 

To give form to his dream for BABY¬ 
LON 5 creator and executive producer Joe 
Straczynski, along with producers Doug 
Netler and John Copeland, and guided by 
casting director Mary Jo Slater were very 
careful in casting their actors for the 1993 
series pilot film "The Gathering." 

As actress Patricia Taltnian noted, (he 
chosen cast did not have a strong “TV 0” 
rating, the recognition factor by audi- 
ences at large. Producers chose to fill the 
roles with experienced and capable ac¬ 
tors and not cast it with celebrity players. 
Most identifiable among the initial cast 
was probably Peter Jurasik. Audiences 
knew Jurasik from many, varied televi¬ 
sion and film roles, notably a three year 
stint beginning in 1985. on HILL 
STREET BLUES as Sid “The Snitch.” 

In common among most of the actors: 
theatrical stage experience. Many of 
them had notable film or television cred¬ 
its, but it was imperative for Straczynski 
to present a fresh-faced, high quality but 
diverse cast with “low baggage” from 
other roles. Stage backgrounds were a 
valued commodity for BABYLON 5 be¬ 
cause in many ways, the series was an 
epic stage opera on film. 

To put a personality and face on the 
hero of his adventure, Straczynski annoil- 
ed C hicago-born actor Michael O'Hare as 
Jeffrey Sinclair, a pivotal figure from the 
Earth-Minbari conflict. A veteran stage 
and television actor, the New York-based 
O'Hare was a graduate of Juilliard who had 
been acting for 20 years and had stage cred¬ 
its like A FEW GOOD MEN, MAN AND 
SUPERMAN and GALILEO. “I worked 
with Angela Lansbury in RAGE OF AN¬ 
GELS: THE STORY CONTINUES (1986) 
and I worked with Tony U>Bianco in MAR¬ 
CIANO (1979), a TV movie,” said O 'Hare. 

For O’Hare, being cast on BABYLON 5 
was part of a constant effort to find work. “It 
was like a lot of auditions that I have gone 
on — hundreds — over the years,” he said. 



Mira Furlan as Minbari Ambassador Delann, featuring the 
androgynous look of the show’s pilot, “The Gathering." 
The Yugoslav refugee was an experienced stage actress. 


Patricia Tallman found herself in a rare 
situation during the casting sessions for 
“The Gathering," Tallman had auditioned 
for the role of Lyta Alexander, the station’s 
resident telepath for the insidious Psi Corps. 
While sitting in a waiting room to prepare 
for her reading, a tall man — a stranger to 
her, entered and approached her. He hastily 
explained that (he role of Lyta Alexander 
w r as written for her. “Good luck!” said Joe 
Straczynski and he then dashed out in a hur¬ 
ry. As Tallman sat there stunned, another 
prospective actor in the room just looked on 


and deadpanned, “No pressure, huh?" 
Straczynski wrote the character for Tall¬ 
man because he saw her gritty perfor¬ 
mance in George Romero’s NIGHT OF 
THE LIVING DEAD (1990). 

“We went through the so-called ‘call¬ 
backs,’ " explained Tallman. “Usually, a 
'callback' means you arc brought in with a 
select few—and then you audition w ith 
that smaller group and you’re chosen from 
there. You may have a series of callbacks. 
It can be very difficult, emotional and 
stressful. If you make good choices, they 
might like you. But you don’t know 
what’s going to kick you into getting the 
part. Everyone at the callback were very 
amped up and excited. I was talking to 
Blaire Baron, Tamlyn Tomita, Michael 
O’Hare and we were all going. It’s great!’ 

“John Copeland, Joe Straczynski and 
director Richard Compton sat us all 
down at this big table and said, 'You are 
our chosen cast!' Our mouths all hit the 
table. We just couldn't believe it. 

“Basically we were there to do our song 
and dance for Warner Bros, to gel approval 
by the suits. We were there to do it again, 
put it on tape and get better scenes, like my 
scene with Andreas Katsulas. The ‘What’s 
your pleasure threshold' scene. That was 
the one instance that wc were all together 
before we started shooting the pilot.” 
Because actress Tamlyn Tomita (as Lt. 
Commander Laurel Takashima) didn’t 
want to do a series, Claudia Christian was 
cast as Sinclair's Russian-born and loyal 
second-in-command Lt. Commander Susan 
Ivanova. Her personality was such that in 
one moment, she could be professional and 
serious and in the next, be fast w ith a quip. 

For the alien ambassadors, Straczynski 
and casting director Slater looked for actors 
who were willing to take a job with the ad¬ 
ditional challenge of working with elabo¬ 
rate makeup prosthetics attached to their 
faces in order to convey their alienness. 

Mira Furlan became Ambassador De- 
lcnn from the Minbari Federation. Original¬ 
ly from the now-extinct Yugoslavia, Furlan 


48 











searching for Epsilon 3 all that lime. Varn’s 
mission is lo keep il out of anyone's hands. 
Sinclair has this and C apt. Ellis Pierce (Ron 
Canada) from Earthforcc to contend with. Varn is 
dying and looking for a replacement. Draal is 
chosen and he’s found what he's been looking for: 
purpose in life. In the end. Draal warns everyone 
via holographic projection, to stay away from 
Epsilon 3. Garibaldi finally contacts Lise 
Hampton (IX-nise Gentile) tin Mars but there is no 
hope for reconciliation; she's married and 
pregnant. 

Director Janet Greek said most memorable 
about "Voice" was that the Ctreat Machine set held 
by Varn was a difficult set because the script had 
called for an earthquake. "Il was really hard to rig 
it because it had to collapse," she said. "The 
machine that the guy was hooked into was quite 
interestitig. h went through several big changes 
before it was something that we were all happy 
with Hut I think that il reallv worked well in the 
end." 


Peter Jurasik as Centaur! Ambassador Londo Mollari and Andreas Katsulas as Narn Ambassador G'Kar, 
wary enemies who grow strangely attached during the series' five-year saga, casting serendipity. 


did 25 films and five television series in her 
native land. She won many awards and did 
"alt of the classics" and was part of the Na¬ 
tional Theater Company, a stage repertory 
group before migrating to the United States 
with her husband Gajic. She was living in 
New York at the time when “The Gather¬ 
ing" was being cast. "I did an audition for 
the pilot and I completely forgot about it," 
said Furlan. “You know, it was just one of 
the auditions that you do, and then they 
called me back. And then nothing happened 
and then they called me back again and they 
called me to California and I did the pilot." 

According to "The Gathering’s" director, 
Richard Compton, he fought hard to get 
Furlan hired as Delenn. "I kept going back 
to her even though we saw a lot of people," 
he said. “There was the network saying, 
4 We have too many people with accents.’ 
But eventually, I think I prevailed in my ad¬ 
miration for her as an actress and I think in 
the end it proved very beneficial to the 
show. I think she’s quite wonderful.” 

To have an experienced stage actress 
from Eastern Europe who literally was en¬ 
tering into a new world, and then to be 
asked to become an extraterrestrial for a 
science fiction television project was just 
about as exotic as it could get for Furlan. “1 
knew very little about science fiction in 
general," she said. “It’s a weird thing, but 


one of the rare shows that came to Yu¬ 
goslavia when 1 was a kid was LOST IN 
SPACE, and now I’m playing with that 
kid!" laughed Furlan, about the casting of 
Billy Mumy. “But I never knew that there 
was this huge science fiction world, so 1 
couldn't really imagine what it’s all about. 
It was totally new and strange for me. 

“But, at that time, I thought about it as 
another adventure in my life, 'Let’s see 
what I can do with that. Let's sec what I can 
do when I'm restricted that much.' It’s a to¬ 
tally different working experience." 

Joining Delenn as her devoutly loyal and 
polite aide Lcnnicr, was former child actor 
Bill Mumy. He was most famous for being 
boy-genius Will Robinson in LOST IN 
SPACE, the 1965-68 TV series. Strac/ynski 
originally auditioned him for a guest ap¬ 
pearance but wound up offering him a cast 
role. Mumy was a multi-talented individual 
who was musically inclined, wrote scripts 
and comics, acted in features like PAPPION 
(1973) and grew up in Hollywood from a 
very young age. 

For Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik. be¬ 
ing cast on BABYLON 5 as G’Kar and Lon¬ 
do, two arch-enemies from the Narn Empire 
and the Centauri Republic, was an experience 
that both felt was serendipitous and rare, as 
Jurasik explained. "TTic script came to me the 
way all scripts have come to me. through my 


“The passions we deplore have taken them to 
their place in the stars and will propel them to 
a ureal destiny. Their only weakness is that they 
do not recognize their own greatness. They are 

tht ruture. —Delenn speaking of the 

humans to the Grav ( nuntil 


Babylon squared **** 

K Hi iwi i||H Unltrn by J. Michael Mrarjyaski Directed by 
J iiB 

Sinclair and Garibaldi answer a strange 
distress call in Sector 14 Babylon 4. the station 
that vanished four years ago. has reappeared. 

They meet an alien named Zathras (Tim Choate), 
who recognizes Sinclair. Zathras reveals that a 
great war is coming and that The One will gather 
troops from all over the galaxy to battle the 
coming darkness. Babylon 4 has been pulled 
through time to he used in this battle but the effort 
is loo unstable, and after being evacuated. H4 
vanishes again. The One is able to stabilize the 
time ilux and we see that it is an older Sinclair 
and Delenn's voice is heard. Delenn meets the 
Gray Council. They have chosen her to become 
the next leader hut she shocks them by being the 
first Satai to ever refuse the honor in i.lHK) years. 
A friend on the Council warns Delenn that she 
may he cast out entirely and gives her the 
Triluminary. 

At the time this was written and filmed, no one 
but Strac/ynski knew that there was a “flipside" 
episode planned. At some point in the series’ 
future, Strac/ynski had planned lo tell the other 
side of the story but didn't know when. "That was 
our most problematic episode," remembered 
DiTillio. "It was obviously written so that Sinclair 
and Delenn down the line were meant to be lovers. 
Of course, that all had to be changed. That 
changed (in the fly as Jew covered Sinclair’s 
departure in War Without End.”’ 


Babylon 4, the station that vanished tour years 
earlier, reappears In "Babylon Squared." a key 
time travel episode bookended later in the series 



49 






















Shadow ships wipe out a Narn fleet like swatting 
flies in "Chrysalis." a favor proffered to Londo by 
Morden to cure the Narn problem in Sector 37. 

ihe (ruth about his missing 24 hours. She has 
decided to ignore the Grey Council's wishes and 
enter the Chrysalis for some kind of 
transformation. Garibaldi is shot in the back by his 
own aide |Macaulay Bruton) when he uncovers a 
conspiracy to assassinate President Santiago. 

Earth Force One. the president’s starship, explodes. 
When G’kar gets the report about the destruction 
of the outpost in Quadrant 13 he leaves for the 
homcworld without an explanation for Na'tnth. 

This episode w r a.s filmed as the series' 12th 
episode because of the post-production time 
needed u» create the special effects. "That was a 
wonderful episode to do.” said director Janet 
Greek. "There was a lot more that 1 wanted to do 
that I couldn’t do I just didn’t have time. Thai was 
kind of frustrating. The Chrysalis itself was a real 
conundrum for all of us. in getting it to look right 
and getting it to reflect light in the right way. It 
was quite a big achievement. Ihal was a really 
packed show and I just tried to make everything 
flow visually as much as I could to help it along, 
but it didn’t really need much help. The show was 
just really well written." 

Trivia: To follow the adventures of Jeffrey 
Sinclair, and to learn about his experiences on 
Minbar as tiarih's ambassador, pick up a copy 
of Dell Publishing's BABYLON 5 novel To 
Dream in the City of Sorrows written by 
Kathryn Drcnnan, who is Joe Straczynski’s 
wife. 

SEASON TWO 
“The Coming of Shadows” 


“Minhari souls are being reborn, in part or in 
full, in Human bodies” 

—Lcnnier to Sheridan and Ivanova 

P oints of Departhre *★* 

11.02 IVM. #201 Written by 1. Michael Slrarrymki Himirtl 
by Janet t«nreL 

General Hague (Robert Eoxworth) tellsCapt. 

Delenn makes an appearance in the B5 council 
chambers after undergoing her transformation by 
Chrysalis to hall-human form in “Revelations." 


John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) he’s taking 
command of Babylon 5 as Sinclair has been 
permanently reassigned as the first human 
ambassador to Minbar. Garibaldi remains in a 
coma. Delenn is still cocooned G’Kar hasn’t 
returned and a Minbari warship lull of renegade 
warrior castes who could noi accept ihe decision 
lo surrender at the Battle of the Line show up 
kurking for a fighi. iledronn (Robin Sachs) of the 
Grey Council has come to tell Delenn that if the 
renegade Minhari cruiser Trigati appears, the 
humans must be told a secret. Lcnnier reveals lo 
Ivanova and Sheridan that the Grey Council 
discovered that some humans have Minhari souls 
including Sinclair. That's why they surrendered 
and that’s the secret lhai was erased from 
Sinclair's memory. Kalain (Richard Grove), the 
leader of the renegades, is also on the stalion to scl 
a plot in motion lo force the humans into 
destroying Ihe Trigati and making martyrs of 
them 


Hedronn of the Grey Council tells Delenn that It 
renegade Minbari cruiser Trigati appears, humans 
must be told the secret of their Minbari souls. 

According to director Janet Greek, the 
transition from Sinclair to Sheridan was quite 
abrupt. "Everybody was kind ol surprised, but it 
was smooth. Bruce came in like a real pro and just 
got right into it I gave him a lot of help and he’s a 
wonderful actor so he just needed some guidance 
and reassurance, trying to find his character. Yet, 
because it was Ihe first episode of the new season, 
we all wanted it to feel his character was fairly 
established, and because he was the commander 
he needed to have that feeling about him. The 
actors were very supportive of him. It was a 
difficult situation. It’s hard when somebody gels 
let go and difficult for the new person stepping in. 

"The thing that was so funny to me was that 
Bruce was really nervous because he really wanted 
lo do a good job. And he was just doing an 
incredible job and nothing I could say to him could 
convince him that he was really doing well. He was 
just so completely dedicated towards (King the best 
that he could possibly be that he just couldn’t 
believe thai he wasn't doing terribly in the beginning. 
I Ic was so happy to have the role and so anxious to 
do it well and be what Joe wanted it to be.” 


Londo takes Lennier (Bill Mumy) on a tour of the 
seamier side of the station and teaches him how 
to ptay poker in “The Quality of Mercy.” 


"Tell the Commander he was right. We are at a 
crossroads and there’s no going hack.” 

—G’kar 


“Here you will see the heart and soul of 
Babylon 5. also its spleen, its kidneys, a 
veritable parade of internal organs.” 

—Dmd» 

The Quality of Mer c y *** 

ft 17 |994 r #117 Written by J. MkltirJ Strar/vit^M. Directed h> 

! or 14 hi t mi4 Ferrara, 

Dr. Laura Rosen (June Lockhart) is healing 
people in Downbclow with a strange alien device 
ih.il transfers lifcforce from one person to another, 
originally used as a means of corporal punishment 
so I he criminal could pay for his crimes by healing 
others with his life. Onibuds Wellington (Jim 
Norton) sentences a murderer lo be brain-wiped 
and spend his remaining life serving the 
community he has harmed. Dr. Franklin discovers 
Laura is dying of a disease and draining bits of her 
life to heal patients. When the killer. Karl Mueller 
(Mark Rolslon). escapes and threatens to kill 
Rosen’s daughter Janice (Kate McNeil). Dr. Rosen 
uses the alien device to transfer his life force lo 
herself. She executes him. saves her daughter and 
as a side effect cures herself, but she is deeply 
disturbed that she has taken a life even to save her 
child Meanwhile. Londo lakes lennier on a lour 
of ihe seamy side of the station and leaches him 
poker, 

Director Lorraine Ferrara only did one episode 
for the series because, as her colleague Janet 
Greek explained, ihe series was L*o difficult for 
her, "She never finished it." said Greek. ‘ It was 
too bad I was there. I kept trying lo help her. Il’s a 
real male show and unless you really can get into 
that mix and feel comfortable, and unless you love 
science fiction, it’s a pretty hard show to do. If 
you're doing drama, science fiction is a lot harder 
than everybody thinks it is. It is not a genre that 
anybody can just jump into. She didn't care about 
science fiction and she just didn't fit. That happens 
with directors.” 


“And so it begins. You have forgnltcn 
something.” 

“IH-lenn!" 

—Kosh and Sinclair 

Chrysalis **** 

ID 24 199-1. #112 Wriltrn In J. Mi*had Slraci^mkL Dirrctad 
hi Janri f irrrk. 

Sinclair and Catherine (Julia Nickson) 
announce their engagement to Ivanova and 
Garibaldi. Morden (Ed Wasser) makes I-ondo an 
offer he can’t refuse: Morden's associates will 
“deal” with Ihe Narn problem in Sector 37 and 
I jindo takes all the credit, loiter, when Londo 
learns HMHHI Narn were slaughtered and worries 
what the price will Ik. Morden says, "Just a favor 
in the future.” Delenn offers to reveal to Sinclair 



“We must warn the others, Na’tnth. After a 
thousand years, the Darkness has come 

—G'Kar 

Revelations *** 1/2 

It.09.1994. *202 Wriltrn by J. Michael StrariiiiU. Directed 
hi Jim Jtihmfofl, 

Sheridan’s sister Elizabeth (Beverly Leech) 
visits and w e discover that his wife Anna died on 
Ihe Icarus, an archaeological survey ship 
destroyed on a dead world called Z'ha’dum. 

When Ihe doctor wants lo try using Ihe alien 
machine he acquired in "Quality of Mercy” as a 
last hope to save Garibaldi, Sheridan donates 
some of his life essence to help. Garibaldi 
reawakens but does not remember what happened 

















agent. We’re always look¬ 
ing for interesting charac¬ 
ters. They said, ‘Go ahead 
and read it and see who 
you'd be interested in 
reading for.’ I immediate¬ 
ly gravitated to Londo. I 
just liked the way he was 
written and went in and 
had a casting call. 

"When I called Joe 
after reading the pilot, 1 
said, ‘Do you have any 
ideas you want me to 
pass on?’ He said, ‘You 
know what? It's wide 
open to you. Do what 
you'd like to do with it. 

I'd love to see you put 
your stuff on.’ Well, that 
sort of carte blanche is a 
wonderful thing for a 
producer to say. 

“The interesting sto¬ 
ry about the casting call 
is—I don’t know how 
many people they must 
have seen overall and, 
you know, they mix the 
casting calls up—but 
Andreas and I ended up 
being back to back in 
our auditions. So, we 
sat out in the waiting 
room and chatted a lit¬ 
tle bit and I went in, 
and then he went in. 

I’m sure they did weeks 
of casting." 

liven more interest¬ 
ing is that Jurasik was not available for call¬ 
backs because he was working at the time, 
and so w ith one audition. Londo came 
alive. For two actors to snatch roles they 
were reading for, within the space of 15 
minutes apart, was perhaps a testament to 
how sometimes the actor and the role just 
falls together. "It really is long odds in 
terms of the casting process to think that we 
were hooked at 2:15 and 2:5(1 on that day.’’ 
chuckled Jurasik. “We think they came into 
a nice run of luck there." 

“Pete and I. we got along famously off¬ 
stage as well as on-stage," noted Andreas 
Katsulas. “I think we got a kick out of being 
buddies and then going in and (earing each 
other apart on the stage. Some of that bleeds 
out, sometimes we kid each other as though 
we were the characters when we’re not," 

As Londo's faithful but timid attache Vir 
C'otto, Stephen Furst was given a role that 
allowed him to swing wildly from light, se¬ 
riocomic moments to dark tragedy. Before 
arriving aboard the station. Furst was al¬ 
ready a familiar face to television and film 
audiences for his appearances in ST. ELSE- 
WHERE as Doctor Elliot Axelrod and in 
National Lampoon's ANIMAL MOUSE 
(ID7R) as “Flounder" w ith John Belushi. 


After a productive 
first season. Strac/ynski 
decided that he needed 
to change his leading 
man and hire a new ac¬ 
tor to climb aboard the 
station and lake com¬ 
mand. The producers 
and O’Hare separated 
very amicably, and it 
was understood that 
Sinclair would return in 
later episodes. 

To spin the saga into 
different directions, 
inviting new opportuni¬ 
ties and problems. Cap¬ 
tain John Sheridan was 
born. According to 
David Bassom's hook 
Creating Babylon 5. the 
producers cast a very- 
wide net for diverse 
types of actors to play 
Sheridan. They looked 
at Anthony Andrews, 
Roger Reece, A. Mar¬ 
line/ and James Earl 
Jones. According to 
Larrv DiTillio, B5’s sto¬ 
ry editor, Warner Bros 
“were hot on Gregory 
Harrison (of TV's LO¬ 
GAN’S RUN fame|. 
We said. *Oh, Jesus!’ 
One of the worst actors 
we’ve ever seen." Di¬ 
Tillio also revealed that 
the role was actually of¬ 
fered to Michael York 
(who later guested on the show as “King 
Arthur" in “A Late Delivery from Aval- 
on.") “Michael was one of the actors con¬ 
sidered to replace O'Hare.*' said DiTillio. 
“At which point Warner Brothers said they 
didn't want an Englishman, because thev 
had an Englishman on S TAR I REK. 

“Once the studio decided to go with 
Bruce, they wanted to expunge Sinclair from 
the collective memory of mankind, which 
was not possible,” grinned Larry DiTillo. 

Noted Boxlcitncr,“(BABYLON 5( an¬ 
swered a bunch of things for me in my 
life and this point in my career. Nothing 
really tweaked my imagination. I did 
watch this show the first season, I only 
saw u few of them, since 1 never watch 
every episode of anything. I thought it 
was kind of interesting. It was a different 
alternative to the STAR TREK shows. 
Jon Frakcs is a good friend of mine, and i 
don't want to say anything bad about 
TREK. Basically, their fans are our fans 
too. It just had this different look and feel 
to it. Darker, grittier looking, and it just 
attracted me. It reminded me a lot of 
OUTLAND and the two ALIEN movies. 
It had that feel of a more military-indus¬ 
trial look to it." □ 


6 i Once the studio de¬ 
cided to go with Bruce, 
[Boxleitner] they wanted 
to expunge Sinclair from 
the collective memory 
of mankind, which was 
not possible. 9 9 


—Story Editor ; Larry DiTillio— 



Patricia Tallman as telepath Lyta 
Alexander, a role tailor-made for the pilot 
and then dropped until third season. 


to scan him. It turns nut his aide (Macau Icy 
Bruton) shut him. Alter he's caught. Sheridan is 
ordered In send the prisoner and all evidence to 
Earth but somehow he disappears cmnule and 
never goes hack to trial. Ci'kar narrowly escapes 
from an attack and returns with confirmation of 
his worst fears in “Chrysalis." He witnesses 
Shadow ships attacking Narn warships, and they 
look like a drawing in the Hook of (i'Ouan of an 
ancient evil. 

Ivanova is conspicuously ahsenl in this show 
because Claudia Christian broke her fool during 
shooting. They wrote it into the next episode’s 
script to explain the cast. 

In an alternate vision of the series, if Lt. 
Commander Laurel Takashima from the pitot had 
been in the series, she would have been the one 
who betrays (iurihaldi. "Laurel would eventually 
have been found to be working under a Psi Corps 
telepathic personality implant," revealed Joe 
Slraczynski. “She herself was not aware of what 
she was doing at the lime. When ihe information 
came U> light, she would have been removed from 
her position, al which point, yes. someone else 
would have to come in as second in command." 



Delenn emerges from the Chrysalis and becomes 
half human, treated by Dr. Franklin in her 
quarters at Lenter’s request in "Revelations." 


“Then.' is a storm coming, a Mack and terrible 
storm. We would not have our knowledge lost or 
used to ill purpose.” —Elrie about why the 

lechnomagesare leasing. 

The Geometry of Shadows * * * 

It 1(1 IW4 CIO Wniirn by J, Mkhwl MntniuLi. Dtmirt 
h* Mifhifi Vcjir, 

The Technomages are an ancient group who 
use technology to create whal seems like magic. 
They sense something had is coming and stop at 
the station on their way to the other side of the 
galactic rim. I.ondo tries various ways 1o get 
their leader. Line (Michael Ansara) to give him 
an endorsement, hut only receives a dire warning 
about his future, (iurihaldi recovers enough to 
return to duty hut his faith in himself is shaken 
and he doesn't know if he trusts Sheridan or 
more importanily, if Sheridan trusts him 
Sheridan gives Ivanova a promotion and her first 
diplomatic assignment: settle the dispute 
between the Drazi's on the station. When one 
faction of the !)ra/i capture Ivanova and use her 
eomlink to lead ihe other faction into a death 
trap, (iarihaldi is (he only one suspicious enough 
to rcati/e something's wrong and he realizes that 
he should stay on as security chief because they 
need him. 

I .arty DiTillio said he enjoyed working with 
Michael Ansara. an actor he grew up watching on 
television in BROKEN ARROW and STAR 
TREK. "Michael had to he cued a lot. I'll tell you 
that," said DiTillio. "He's a fine actor but has a 
lousy memory. That's no big deal. You go through 
that with some actors who have problems with 
certain lines and you have to cue them during the 


51 























The actress behind B5’s second in command, Lt. 
Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, on her cossack role in space . 




By David Bassom 

When Claudia Christian won the role 
of Susan Ivanova in BABYLON 5, she 
had no idea how long her assignment to 
the Earth Alliance space station would 
last. “I read three scripts and I knew that 
the show was going to be very good 
quality," she explains, “but 1 also knew 
that nothing in the science fiction genre, 
besides the STAR TREK shows, had sur¬ 
vived more than a season or so. So I did¬ 
n't feel that I was investing my life in it; I 
really didn't know how long the show 
was going to run. However, after the first 
season, when Bruce [Boxleilner, Captain 
Sheridan) came along, I thought we had 
a far better shot at completing this five- 
year saga.” 

Christian made her debut as Lieu¬ 
tenant Commander Ivanova in BABY¬ 
LON 5’s first season premiere, “Mid¬ 
night On The Firing Line,” and was in¬ 
troduced as a replacement for Tamlyn 
Tomita, who had played 
the station's original first 
officer. Laurel Taka- 
shima, in the show’s fea¬ 
ture-length pilot, “The 
Gathering." “They were 
looking for someone who 
had more authority," she 
recalled. “Tamlyn Tomita 
is a very good actress, 
but they were looking for 
someone who was a bit 
taller and a bit tougher, and 1 guess 1 fit the 
bill! I went in and got the part within a few 
hours." 

Upon landing the role, Christian re¬ 
ceived a brief description of Susan Ivano¬ 
va’s background and personality, but was 
left totally in the dark as to what fate had in 
store for her character — if anything! Fortu¬ 
nately, the actress was delighted by the way 
Ivanova was developed. 

“The character has changed substantially 
since the beginning," she explained. “In the 
first year, she was rather uptight and ultra- 


militaristic because she was the new kid on 
(he block and wanted to do her job really 
well. Then, during the second season, she 
felt more at case with her surroundings and 
more secure in her job, especially when she 
was promoted [to the rank of full Comman¬ 
der). She was particularly pleased about the 
assignment of Captain Sheridan, who she 
had worked with before. Things like that re¬ 
ally helped lighten Ivanova up." 

Although Ivanova has increasingly dis¬ 
played a sense of fun as the series has pro¬ 
gressed, one of the second season’s latter 


installments, “Divided Loyalties,” re¬ 
vealed something that the acerbic Earth- 
Force officer had desperately tried to 
keep secret: she was a latent telepath. 
More controversially, the episode also 
had Ivanova developing an intimate — 
perhaps even romantic — relationship 
with tclepath Talia Winters, who is sub¬ 
sequently exposed as an unwitting Psi 
Corps spy. 

“It’s up to you to perceive what you 
want to perceive," said Christian of her 
character’s relationship with Talia. “I 
know what 1 personally believe, but 
maybe a child wouldn’t pick up on any¬ 
thing sexual. Any kids who saw the show 
might have thought that Ivanova was just 
giving Talia a place to sleep. Of course, 
other people might say, ‘Well, yeah, then 
why did she wake up and touch the other 
side of the bed if Talia wasn’t there?’ So 
it’s really up to the viewer to decide how 
to interpret it. 

“In my mind, something happened. I 
think that Ivanova always had a deep 
feeling, an attraction and a deep love for 
(Talia) and she got totally betrayed by 
her. So there goes another brick on her 
proverbial wall.” 

According to Christian, BABYLON 
5’s third season proved to be Susan 
Ivanova’s finest year. As the Army of 
Light engaged the Shadows in all-out 
war, Ivanova found herself charged with 
more diplomatic duties, embarked on 
several dangerous missions on the White 
Star, and developed a love/hate relationship 
with Ranger Marcus Cole (Jason Carter). 
“Ivanova really became a much bigger part 
of the storyline third season,” she stated. 
“She was given a lot more responsibility, 
and I got to do the opening narration, which 
was nice.” 

Surprise developments and unexpected 
plot twists arc, of course, two of BABY¬ 
LON 5’s most appealing trademarks. Proba¬ 
bly the biggest — and most traumatic — 
change to the show’s format came at the be¬ 
ginning of its second season, when Michael 


52 
















Christian and Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar In second season's “The Fall of Night," watching in awe as Kosh 
the Vorlon Ambassador unveils himself and everyone sees a vision of their own race’s mythic Gods. 


O’Hare (who played Babylon 5’s original 
commander, Jeffrey Sinclair) was replaced 
by Bruce Boxleitner as the series' leading 
man. 

“The fans balked when the news was an¬ 
nounced,” revealed Christian, “and I would 
just say, ‘Give Bruce a chance.’ He’s been 
really great. Michael’s a great guy and 1 
wish him all the best, but I work better with 
Bruce. Our relationship has a lot more col¬ 
ors and a lot more depth than Ivanova and 
Sinclair’s.” 

Christian credited Boxleitner for playing 
a key role in fostering a “family-atmos¬ 
phere” on the set of BABYLON 5. “Bruce 
was very enthusiastic about the role. He 
wore his BABYLON 5 hat and jacket 
everywhere! He believed in the show, but at 
the same time, he wanted everyone to enjoy 
working on the show. That made for a very 
happy set.” 

The actress was equally full of praise for 
the show’s aforementioned creator, J. 
Michael Straczynski. “I had total faith in 
Joe. I was a pawn in his chess game. It was 
up to me to hit my marks and say my lines. 
I was constantly amazed by the imagination 
of his work.” 

Struczynski’s imagination was put to the 
test during the shooting of the second sea¬ 
son episode “The Geometry of Shadows," 
when Christian informed him what had 
happened on her day off! “It was my birth¬ 
day and I was acting like I was 12 years 
old—I tried to catch a bird in my garden. I 
did a flying leap and broke my foot! Joe 
Straczynski immediately rewrote the 
episode so that the Drazi fell on Ivanova 
and her foot was broken. I thought it 
worked really well; it was a cute little 
episode.” 

Alongside “The Geometry of Shadows,” 


Christian's other favorite episodes of 
BABYLON 5 include “TKO” and “Acts Of 
Sacrifice.” Noted Christian, “1 liked work¬ 
ing on 4 TKO' because I had some heavy 
drama and I got to work with Theodore 
Bikcl. ‘Acts of Sacrifice* was fun because it 
was one of the first chances I had to do 
some comedy on the show.” 

In the years since her debut as Susan 
Ivanova, Christian has been inundated with 
mail from the show’s fans and has become a 
regular guest speaker at science fiction con¬ 
ventions around the world. “1 have no prob¬ 
lems with the celebrity aspects of the job,” 
she said. “1 enjoy being recognized, signing 
autographs and posing for photos with the 
fans. At first, I didn’t understand or expect 
the intensity of their love, but it’s something 
I’ve gotten used to.” 

Ironically, while Christian is best known 
for her portrayal of Susan Ivanova, the 
character is unlike anyone she had ever 
played before. Prior to boarding BABY¬ 
LON 5, she had played a diverse range of 
roles in such films and TV as THE HID¬ 
DEN, CLEAN AND SOBER, ARENA, 
NEVER ON TUESDAY, QUANTUM 
LEAP, MURDER SHE WROTE, L. A. 
LAW, COLUMBO and SPACE RANG¬ 
ERS, to name but a few. More surprisingly, 
Christian had developed a deep affection 
for absurd comedy, which she best dis¬ 
played in Columbia Pictures’ black comedy 
HEXED. Thus, playing a stern, repressed 
military officer in a syndicated TV series 
represented quite a departure for the vibrant 
and fun-loving actress. 

“When I first heard about BABYLON 5, 
I was worried about being tied down to a 
TV show,” she recalled. “At the time, I real¬ 
ly wanted to move away from TV to pursue 
a movie career; I think every actor wants to 



Vlr encounters the holoimage of a dragon when 
he goes to visit the TechnoMages, an ancient 
group that uses technology as it it were magic. 


scene. Quite a few takes wiih Michael. What 
came uiil of it was good but it was like pulling 
teeth.” 

This episode was a good spotlight of Claudia 
Christian's abilities. “It was great for Claudia," 
said DiTillin. "She handles comedy very well. She 
just didn't get to do a lot of it. She's a terrific 
comic actress." 

Trivia; Claudia Christian broke her fool and so 
the injury was written into this episode. 


“There's the story she fold us, hul then the 
Min ban never tell you the whole I ruth.” 

—Sheridan about Deleon's transformation. 

A Distant Stak *+ 

11/23 IW4,12(W Written by D*C. hmuiu Directed by Jim 
Jiihn*Cufi. 

Capt. Maynard (Russ Tamblyn). Sheridan's 
first commander slops off at the station but his 
visit disturbs Sheridan who starts to feel he has 
been “beached” Id a desk job. I -iter when 
Maynard's ship gets lost in hyperspace Sheridan 
uses a kind of huckel'hrigadc lactic to rescue him. 
I.t. Keller sees a Shadow ship while in hyperspace 
and becomes obsessed with finding out what il is. 
Maynard also said he saw “something" out near 
the rim. When the squadron leader's ship is 
destroyed by a Shadow ship Keffer is the new 
leader. 

The means used in this episode to save Lt. 
Keffer's lost Slartury has historical roots. “The 
way they saved the ship was the way they did that 
with ships in the IKIKls," noted DiTillin. “If they 
had a problem, they 'd send a string of smalt boats 
out to I he ship that was stranded. It became a 
lifeline for them. Dorothy Fontana is very good at 
taking historical stuff and putting il into SF. That’s 
how we writers gel a lot of our stories. What could 
be better than what actually happened? And it 
worked.” 


Russ Tamblyn as Captain Maynard, Sheridan’s 
first commander, tells tales of the weird things 
he's seen out on the rim in "A Distant Star." 



i 


53 













“You wen * 1 just about tu accuse the Centauri 
ambassador of being in league with the devil— 
which might not he lm> far from the truth." 

—(tiirihaUli to Amis 

Thk Long Dark +* 

I I/M I^M. #205 Hntlen In Scolt Frost J hm led by Mario 
Dilto. 

A l.urkcr named Amis (Dwight Schultz) starts 
ranting that the evil creature who killed his 
buddies and fed off of him during the war is 
coming to kill everybody. A pre-jump gate ship 
homes in on the station and they revive Mariah 
Cirrus (Anne-Marie Johnson) who’s been in stasis 
for over 100 years. They discover her husband 
was murdered by an invisible creature who 
boarded the ship and changed its course lor 
Z'hu'dtini. a long dead world out on the Kim. Now 
it's loose on the station. A drawing in G’Kar’s 
Hook of G'Quan looks just like it. When people 
start to die. Garibaldi convinces Amis to help them 
hunt down the creature. 

"There have only been a couple of cases 
where things didn't work out," noted Joe 
Strac/ynski of l-nundation Imaging's CGI work. 
"One was the ending of ‘The lamg Dark.' the 
revelation ol (he creature that lagged along on 
the ship. It was supposed to have been a hell of a 
lot more impressive than it was. Hut it wasn't 
Ron |Thornton's| fault; it w as somebody else. 
Rarely am I actually surprised in the sense that a 
shot has been delivered and there's something 
put in there. They say. We want to do this in 
here, a small thing.' And we find a way to do it. 
Hut they know better than to spring it on me out 
of nowhere and then say, 'We're putting it in the 
episode now.* ‘No. no. no. you will tell me ahead 
of time!’ Very rarely that I have much of a 
problem w ith what they do. They’re just so good 
over there.” 


STAR TREK’s Dwight Schultz as a Lurfcer named 
Amis, ranting to Garibaldi or the evil creature who 
killed and fed oft his buddies in "The Long Dark." 


"I trust in individuals, not organizalinns." 

—Sheridan 

A Spider in the Web a* 1/2 

I2/7MW4 W HUca by Liny IH l illm. UimJrd by Knia 
( rr min. 

I alia is monitoring talks between her old 
friend Taro Isogi (James Shigcta) of f-ulurc Corp 
and Amanda Carter (Adrienne Harbeau) of Mars 
Colony. Senator Voudrcau (Jessica Walter) tells 
Sheridan that luirllihorce thinks Isogi is conspiring 
with Mars Colony against Earth and wants him to 
check it oul. When Isogi is killed by Abel Horn 
(Michael Beck) who says "Free Mars!" Talia scans 
him but there is noihing in his mind except a ship 
blowing up Horn died in a space combat but Psi 
Corps used him as a subject in an experimental 
project called “Lazarus." Horn seeks out his old 
lover, Amanda Carter, then knocks her out after 
she calls Talia. Garibaldi tracks Horn to Carter's 
room but he has I’alia as a hostage. Sheridan tries 


do high-quality movies 
and only work two or 
ihree limes a year! But 
the wav I figured it was 
that if BABYLON 5 ran 
for five years, 1 would 
he 32 at the end of it and 

still have mv feature 

* 

film career ahead of me. 

I could go back to it. 

And 1 still believe that I 
can have a fine film ca¬ 
reer once BABYLON 
5 goes away." 

Christian admitted 
that BABYLON 5 has¬ 
n't really been much of a stepping stone to a 
movie career, but has absolutely no regrets 
about her decision to join the show. “It’s 
been one of the most enjoyable jobs of my 
career.” she explained. "It hasn’t made me 
receive more attention from the film com¬ 
munity; f haven't had offers pouring in. But 
it's a nice steady job. the people are wonder¬ 
ful and I enjoy my work—and that's what’s 
important to me. It's given me a thread of 
stability in a very unstable business." 

Looking on the bright side, Christian is- 
n't afraid of being typecast, "because, 
frankly, nobody in the film industry watch¬ 
es BABYLON 5! They don’t know what 
I’ve been doing." 

Despite her enthusiasm for a rewarding 
film career, however, it isn’t the sum total 
of Christian's long-term hopes and 
dreams. "Ultimately, it would be nice to be 
successful enough to be able to do some¬ 
thing good for other people," she said. "I 
like working with children and old people. 
1 think that if you could have a good career 
in the arts that made me financially inde¬ 
pendent, then I could go do something 


good for other people. 
For instance. I would 
love to make documen¬ 
taries on certain issues 
that I think need to be 
addressed right now." 

Christian dismissed 
the claim that BABY¬ 
LON 5 will, like STAR 
TREK before it, be most 
appreciated after its can¬ 
cellation. "I think we’re 
being appreciated now," 
she stated. "I think we 
already have a much 
stronger following than 
the original STAR I REK when it came 
out. So I think we're already beyond 
that point.” 

With four years of BABYLON 5 to 
her credit, Christian lost little of her en¬ 
thusiasm for the show, making it a shame 
she couldn't come to contract terms for 
the scries’ final fifth year. "Working on 
BABYLON 5 has been wonderful.” she 
stated. "The cast and crew are really the 
most incredible people I’ve worked with; 
my fellow' castmembers are giving and 
generous, and it’s a joy to be around them. 
Being involved with something that peo¬ 
ple have such a strong and positive reac¬ 
tion to has been a wonderful experience. 
And playing a strong female character has 
been great, as opposed to playing some of 
the roles that are written for women! 

"I was happy to be a part of BABYLON 
5 and I certainly wouldn't mind if people 
remembered me from the show a long time 
after it’s finished. 1 hope it will be part of 
something people remember me for but not 
the whole thing; there’s more to me than 
Susan Ivanova!” 


Christian has trouble maintaining a somber mood during filming of “Sleeping in Light." the series 
penultimate show, with (I to r) Jeff Conaway, Mira Furlan. Stephen Furst. Richard Biggs and Jerry Doyle. 


££l haven’t had offers 
pouring in. But it’s a 
nice, steady job and 
the people are wonder 
ful. It’s given me the 
stability in a very 
unstable business. 9 9 


—Actress Claudia Christian— 




54 



























lo reason with him hul after letting Tali a go. 
Garibaldi kills him. Sheridan tells Garibaldi there 
have Keen rumors of a rogue operation deep inside 
Earth Gov called Bureau 13 which he thinks was 
responsible. 

“ Ibis was my first script in the second 
season." said Larry Dfflllio. “The premise was 
that someone commits a murder and Talia sees 
something in the murderer's mind, but doesn't 
understand w hat it is. But it s a clue to the murder. 
That was all I was given as a premise. I started to 
think about the problem of what could she have 
seen in his mind that would be so strange that she 
didn't understand il. And I thought to myself, 
'suppose she looks in his mind and finds out that 
he's dead?' That's really where the whole story 
came from. That would interest her and she would 
understand it, and that's what she secs. Of course. 

I had to come up with a reason why she sees that 
he’s dead. And I came up with the whole I^a/arus 
Project” 



Adrienne Barbeau as Amanda Carter of Mars 
Colony, monitored by P$i Corps for conspiring 
against Earth in “A Spider In the Web.' 1 


Pans tike the secret Bureau 13 and lament 
their secrets weren't followed up in later 
episodes. “I wanted to add something within 
Harth Alliance that was actually against what the 
Psi Corp was doing, despite the fact that you see 
a Psi ('tip as the head of Bureau 13." explained 
DiTitlio. “Most people thought it was a Psi Corp 
division, but it isn’t. There are certain rogue 
members of Psi Corp in it. What happened was 
that Bureau 13 happened to be the name of a 
role-playing game. J went looking for a name, 
and Bureau 13 popped into my head. I used it, 
and some Internet yo-yo went to them and said 
*B5 ts ripping you guys off. And someone from 
the company called me. and said. 'You arc 
ripping us off.' And I said ‘IT I am. it's 
unconscious. I didn’t mean to.* So we weren't 
able to use the name again, so Bureau 13 just 
went aw ay and disappeared. I had plans to bring 
Bureau 13 back as ’Omega Bureau* or something 
or other I was going to destroy their San Diego 
headquarters. What I wanted was a force on 
Barth saying ‘Psi Corp is wrong, and we were 
going to work against them.' and were a dirty 
tricks squat). They were also responsible for 
Knight One and Knight Two in A Sky Full of 
Stars' in my mind. And several other of the 
incidents in llie first season were Bureau 13 
incidents. Or could've been. When we were no 
longer able lo use the name, it became a moot 
point." 


"Whatever you may think of me. Doctor, I have 
some principles that even 20 years with I outdo 
can’t erase.” —Timov 

Soul Mates **+ 

IM4 IW4 »’l>8 U Milt'd h) I’rtlrr Hat id. Hurried by John ( . 
Minn. III. 

The Emperor has given Londo permission to 
divorce two of his three wives so he sends for all 



Londo's wives. Daggair (Lois Netlleton}. acid* 
tongued Timov (Jane Carr) and Mariel (Blair 
Valk), face divorce proceedings in “Soul Mates." 


of them lo decide which one to keep. Timov (Jane 
Carr), his first wife Meals the show- snagging all 
the nastiest put downs against Daggair (Lois 
Netlleton). Mariel (Blair Valk), Londo. Vir and 
anybody else within carshol of her venomous 
tongue. When Bondo is poisoned Timov 
reluctanlly gives a blood transfusion on the 
condition the Doctor keeps il secret, and in the 
end. Londo chooses Timov as his single wife. 

Talia sex-husband. Matthew Stoner (Kcilh 
S/arabajka) claims he’s free of Psi Corps because 
an experiment wiped out his telepathic powers. He 
says he loves her and offers to do the same for her, 
hul when Garibaldi suspects he's lying about his 
powers, Talia helps set a trap. ITie truth is an 
experiment turned hint into a high powered 
empath and the C orps wanted Talia to breed more 
of them. 

Peter David's imli.il foray into the B5 
universe was actually rejected. “What happened 
was the outline w as done on assignment." 
Slrac/ynski said. “He turned in the outline and, as 
I recall, it just wasn't what il kind of had to be 
and then he went away and on his own did the 
script and sent it in. And he said, 'Look, if you 
want it, you can buy it. if you don't, you don't 
have to. You're not obligated lo this.' i read il and 
he had listened to the reasons why I had problems 
w ith the outline and turned right around and did a 
great script.” 

Noted Larry DiTillio, “It has Peter’s puckish, 
wry humor in it." 

Trivia: Tire original episode title was 
“Pestilence. Famine and Death.” 


“You'll destroy them inch by inch as a lesson to 
the olhcrs." 

—Talia lo Beslvr about the rogue telepalhs 

A Race Thkoi <ill Dark Places +** 

I 15 IW5,1207 H nllcn by J, Mnbrl IHrrrini by 

Jim jiilivtMiin, 

Hester asks Talia to help him find and shut 
down an underground railroad for unregistered and 


Shadow ships destroy the Narn outpost in 
Quadrant 14. Londo's plan to incite a war to grab 
Centaurl power in “The Coming of Shadows." 



runaway telepalhs he suspects is on B5. The leader 
of the telepalhs (Apesanahkwat), is the linker who 
gave Garibaldi a lip in "Chrysalis." Talia finds out 
her gift’ from Iron heart in “Mind War” was more 
than telekinesis hut the ability to block out a P-12 
level Psi Cop. She and the others trick Bestcr into 
thinking they arc all dead. Dr. Franklin is running 
the “railroad" on the station but had been involved 
before he came to H.V Sheridan and Ivanova refuse 
to begin paying reni lor their "command-si/e" 
quarters and get locked out. After an almost 
sleepless night camped in his office. Sheridan pays 
the rent out of station funds. Delenn asks Sheridan 
to dinner lo learn more about being human, but she 
wears a traffic-slopping human style dress 
providing a romantic feel to the “dale." 

The second Iclcpath standing with Hester 
during an attempted probe of a rogue telepath's 
mind in the leaser is Walter Koenig's w ife. Judy 
Levitt. “I didn’t know how do we maintain this 
character on the show without killing him off after 
having done something so horrendous?" said 
Koenig "I was curious how Joe would bring the 
character hack, knowing Hester has committed a 
rather heinous ad." 



Andrea Thompson as Psi Corps telepath Talia 
Winters, glove-less in communion with runaway 
telepaths In “A Race Through Dark Places.” 


We begin lo see a softer relationship 
developing between Delenn and Sheridan when 
they have a “dale" in the restaurant "I 
complained it* Joe about Sheridan and Delenn.” 
said Boxleitner. “I say. 'Y’know, you're great 
with this intergalactic writing and all this 
prophcsi/mg hut this boy/girl stuff is lacking, 
it’s so adolescent.' And he told me something. 

He said 'Wail a second. You’re talking as an 
Barth male in contemporary times, that's where 
you're coming from, it may sound naive and 
innocent lo you. but they aren't that. These 
people are 300 years ahead now in a different 
atmosphere. And who is lo say that the Minbari 
are as sexually sophisticated as a 20th-century 
human being?’ He says they are different and 
very naive and very childlike in their sexual 
sophistication. 

"1 think none of the Farthers on Babylon 5 
have had a successful love-1 ife. Ivanova and 
Sheridan share very much this same kind of thing, 
they weren’t successful in their private lives with 
relationships and things. T hey always ended in 
disappoint men I or tragedy, so they kind of threw 
every thing into duty and serving Earlhforce." 


“How will this end?" 

"in —The( entuuri Emperor 

and Ambassador Kosh 

The Comin g of Sha dow s 

2/I/W5. *209 Wnllm by J, Mirbrl Nir»ri>n%la. Ilimlrd h% 
jinrt (iltrlL 

The ( entauri Emperor (Turhan Bey) arrives 
aboard B5 for a tour lamdo asks Monlen’s (Ed 
Wasser) friends to destroy the Narn outpost in 
Ouadrant 14 to start a war with the Narn and gTab 

55 














Behind-the-scenes of the series’tumultuous 
shakedown cruise, surviving against all odds. 



Hew York stage actor Michael O'Hare aa B5 Commander Jeffrey Sinclair. “This 
la a large palette to paint," said O'Hare, "a scope of BEN-HUR proportions." 


By Frank Garcia 
and Nancy Garcia 

In the beginning of any nov¬ 
el, the author's first task is to 
acclimate his reader to the set¬ 
ting, introduce the myraids of 
characters inhabiting the story's 
universe and set up plots and 
conflicts propelling the story 
forward. 

Creating a five-mile long, 
rotating space station hanging 
in deep space was a mighty set¬ 
ting. The characters were more 
diverse than an ordinary televi¬ 
sion series: humans from Barth 
were in charge of administrat¬ 
ing the station while countless 
extraterrestrial aliens from 
across the galaxy walked in the 
hallways amongst each other. 

The plots of early install¬ 
ments were initially episodic in 
nature, serving as a canvas for 
viewers to “get to know" the in- 
habitants of B5 and to learn 
what's going on in the universe. 

Unbeknownst to the audi¬ 
ence, a grander picture was 
cleverly hidden behind the can¬ 
vas by executive producer and 
series author J. Michael Stra- 
ezynski. This picture slowly 
came to light as the series pro¬ 
gressed. Because Straczynski 
had plotted out the entire five years before¬ 
hand, this allowed for the rare use of a nov- 
elistic technique on a TV series. Diligent 
viewers could rewatch episodes and catch 
lines of dialogue, a word or a phrase, and 
sec how it gained greater significance in fu¬ 
ture episodes. Without planning, this is not 
possible. 

The planted seeds for future story arcs 
was right there, on the very first episode, 
“Midnight on the Firing Line." A recurring 
dream that haunted Londo Mollari. a dream 
of his death 20 years down the road, being 


strangled at the hands of G'Kar. This ap¬ 
proach gave the series unparalleled episodic 
continuity. “I think it was like another little 
pilot all over again, because there were new 
characters added and it just required a lot of 
rethinking about things that we didn't like 
in the pilot we thought should be changed 
for the good of the run of the show,” said di¬ 
rector Richard Compton. These adjust¬ 
ments, he says were mostly related to char¬ 
acters. “And 1 think also that [the produc¬ 
ers] decided early on that they should shift a 
lot of the burden of the show away from 


Michael [O'Harc], and they 
were doing that little by little as 
it went along and I think it start¬ 
ed right in the very beginning. 
There was a big question after 
the pilot whether they should 
re-cast right away,” 

BABYLON 5 presented mul¬ 
ti-threaded stories and charac¬ 
ters, similar to the HILL 
STREET BLUES/ST. ELSE¬ 
WHERE style. Usually drama 
has an “A” and “B” plot to sus¬ 
tain an hour, but B5 often 
threaded three or four plots dur- 
ing the course of a show'. 
“When you have an ensemble 
cast, you can’t write for every¬ 
body every week and make the 
stories work,” noted Compton, 
Frequently, it’s necessary to 
“spotlight” certain characters 
only. “You can't just plug them 
in to get them in.” However, 
spotlights also served to enrich 
individual characters. 

“One of the things I liked 
about BABYLON 5 is that it 
had a larger arc in almost every 
episode,” recalled Michael 
O'Hare. “There’s an epic jour¬ 
ney there. This is a large palette 
to paint. This is the first time 
I’ve seen something like this. 
You’re talking about a scope of 
BEN-HUR proportions on tele¬ 
vision. This is a hundred and some odd 
episode mini-series.” 

O'Harc said that he was surprised how 
easily he adapted to the specific require¬ 
ments that a SF show demanded, such as 
acting with extraterrestrial aliens and star¬ 
ing out into a blue screen so that other ele¬ 
ments could later be inserted. “I've had 
many acting challenges that are not science 
fiction that have the same type of de¬ 
mands,” O'Harc said. “Getting used to 
working opposite people who are supposed 
to be aliens, that I found very easy. I re- 


56 














Peter Jurasik as tragic Centauri Ambassador Londo Mol lari whose 110 episode-long story arc was set In 
the very first episode ‘ Midnight On the Firing Line." as Londo dreams ol his death at the hands of G'Kar. 


member after the pilot, or during the pilot I 
walked away from G’Kar after a very in¬ 
tense scene with this guy. 1 walked away 
and I said to myself, ‘My God, I’ve just had 
a serious conversation with a man dressed 
as a lizard!’ I’m irreverent in saying lizard, 
but I think that he's just tremendous in it.” 

The earliest episodes also introduced the 
station's inhabitants and those who arrived 
for business. Individuals who passed 
through the station and affected the lives of 
our main characters included a “Soul 
Hunter” who captured souls at the moment 


of their deaths, a Centauri dancer who at¬ 
tempted to steal important files from Londo 
(“Born to the Purple,”) an archaeologist 
who brought unknown artifacts to Dr. 
Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs) and acci¬ 
dentally created a monster (“Infection.”) 

Notably, in “Mind War" a recurring 
nemesis made his first appearance. While in 
pursuit of a telepathic renegade, Alfred 
Bcstcr (Walter Koenig), an officer from Psi- 
Corps, the telepath law enforcement agency, 
was fiercely determined to catch his quarry. 

Snatching the Bester role turned out to be 


power when the bmperor dies. G’Kar plans an 
assassination of the Emperor hut feels cheated 
when the man collapses. In Mcdlub. the Bmperor 
tells Dr. franklin his reasons foT coming to B5: to 
prevent war by formally apologizing to the Nam 
and to see a Vorlon. Hie doctor relays his message 
to G'Kar. Londo lies about the Bmperor's last 
words saying he hacked them, but Londo turns 
dow n the offer of being Bmperor because his latest 
dream shows G'Kar kilting him as Bmperor. Laud 
Re fa (William Forward) has the Centauri Prime 
Minister killed sat that the Bmperor*s nephew, 
whom they control, will ascend the throne. 

Adam “Mojo” 1 .chowit/ noted sometimes a 
request for space battles can be oblique. “In 
'Coming Of Shadows' we had three or four 
descriptions about what should happen, and even 
one of the lines was ‘A Ron Thornton or 
Foundation Imaging Special. Complete chaos,'” 
he said. "And so our job is to say, ‘Well if they 
want complete chaos, we’re going to give it to 
them.* Because we’re fans and want to make a 
good show. Often, even if there may he only five 
shots in the script, we'll say for this to work, 
we re going to need another two or three. Without 
that it's not going lo work properly. Or this is 
described as one shoi. but lor it to he exciting we 
need it to cut between three shots It's crazy but 
instead of doing just what we're asked, we'll stick 
in more. Even when we’re under the gun We'll 
say, ’No this has to be two shots or it’s not going 
to work.'And we take it upon ourselves to add 
some shots. They haven't complained.” 

Jeffrey Willerth. Bruce Boxleitner's stand-in. 
debuts as Ambassador Kosh. taking over from 
one of the Optic Nerve makeup specialists. “It I 
didn’t ever get a chance to do it again. I knew- that 
I would be able lo go down in the B5 history 
honks and say, 'He he! I got lo play Kosh!' I had 
no idea that the character would go on and 
on...and die!” 

Having previously directed Andreas Katsulas 
in MAX HEADROOM. Janet Greek observed, 
“Andreas is a really powerful actor, he's really 
fabulous. In person he has a really unusual look 
and so he’s probably never going to be a leading 
man. He’s got the heart of a leading man and he’s 
an incredible actor with a lot of passion and 
warmth. It’s really interesting to use that in a 
villain and he plays a really tortured person really 
well." 


“Wc are all slaves lo our history. IT we are to 
have a bright future we must break those 

chains. —Deleon to Garibaldi 

Gropos WWW 1/2 

2 If 11*5. #21# Written by I JOT? IMIUIm. Otrrrtrd by Jin 
Juhmltifi. 

The station is overcrowded hy 25,1 UK) troops 
nicknamed "ground pounders” on leave. Dr. 
Franklin’s father. General Ricluid Franklin (Paul 
Winfield), strips by the station for strategic advice 


Garibaldi's new love interest. Dodger (Marie 
Marshall), is one of the GroundPounder troopers 
to die during the assault ol Akdor in "GROPOS". 



57 
















from Sheridan on the way to a perilous mission 
and brings new weapons to beef up (he station's 
defenses. While there, the doctor resolves his 
personal problems w ith hts father. Garibaldi turns 
down 4 one-night-stand with Dodger (Marie 
Marshall), a female soldier, because lor once he 
wants to go slow with a relationship, and Lt. 
keffer makes friends with the two soldiers 
bunking w ith him. luiier, a news broadcast shows 
that the cost of w inning the battle was very high, 
every one of the GROWS wc have gotten to 
know is a casually. 

"GROWS is probably my most controversial 
script.” noted DiTillio. People either hale it or they 
love it. A lot of people didn't gel the idea. A lot rtf 
people say. 'I can’t believe you killed all those 
people.* And that was the point That’s what we do 
with soldiers, we throw them into hoppers and 
they die. 

“1 always wanted to do a huge John Wayne- 
type bar fight We had great brawl, and if only the 
wheel had blown up right, we'd been all right, h 
was suppose to be this big shot, when the big 
roulette wheel comes down and blows up. but it 
didn’t quite work It took three hours to set up and 
then it just fizzled. We ended it some other way. I 
just wanted to show B5 in complete chaos. 

“The highest praise I had ever gotten was front 
our marine consultant who was playing Gen. 
Franklin's aide. He asked me, 'What outfit were 
you in ’ And t told him that I was never in one. 
and he said. ‘You have to have been a marine. You 
got it exactly right.’ And I thanked him, that was 
high praise for me." 

Trivia: James Earl Jones was the lirst choice as 
l)r. Franklin's father but he was loo expensive. 



Bruce Boxleltner as Sheridan, on the losing end 
of a battle with a six foot Narn prisoner played by 
Marshall Teague in “All Alone In The Night," 


“Very soon now I will be going into darkness 
and fire. I do not know if I am fated to walk out 
again. If it is your choice to come with me, then 
1 could not wish for a heller, or hraver, 

companion." „ . . , 

—Helen n to lA-nnier 

Au. Alone in the Night _** 1/2 

115 IW5- fill Written by J* Mkh*cl Sirsritmki. Ilimlnl hi 
Mario liil 4 mi 

Sheridan is captured, held captive and tortured 
on an unknown alien ship. While there, kosh 
sends him a telepathic message that Sheridan is 
‘the Hand.’ I lie Grey Council calls Dclcnn to 
Minbar lo officially strip away her membership in 
the Council because of her transformation. She 
learns that she has been replaced by a member of 
the Warrior Caste thus tilling the balance of power 
since now they have four members instead of the 
traditional three for each caste: Worker. Religious 
and Warrior. 

“In 'All Alone in the Night' I got to fight a six- 
fool Narn. and he heal the crap out of me!” said 
liruce Boxleilner. “And 1 love that. The hero 
doesn’t always win here. I don’t do my own 
stunts, because I did loo much of it when I was 


Singer-songwriter Paul Williams in makeup as 
the aide to the Lumati ambassador who insists 
on having sex with Ivanova In “Acts of Sacrifice.’ 

younger. I’ve one had knee. I’ve separated both of 
my shoulders. In TRON, I separated my left 
shoulder. Two years ago in Haw aii w hile boogie¬ 
boarding, I piled into the beach by a huge wave 
and broke my right shoulder. I get the occasional 
fisticuffs on the station, but that’s it.” 


“G’kar, everyone knows the first casualty of 
war is at wavs the truth.” —Sheridan 


Acts of Sacrifice 


** 1/2 



2 21IW5, #212 Wnltris In J. Micharl StracM mki. Dim led hi 
Jim Jidimton. 

G’Kar struggles to prevent the Nnrns on the 
station from beginning open warfare with the 
Centauri. in hopes that Earth or Minbar will take 
the Narn side in the war. He risks hts life fighting 
one of the younger Narns lor control but in the 
end Earth and Minbar slay neutral and Sheridan 
and Delenn can only offer unofficial, secret aid to 
Narn refugees. Ivanova must find a diplomatic 
way to handle the alien Lumati, W'hose planet has 
decided to join the League of Non-Aligned Worlds 
but the ambassador. Conch Imcr/on (Ian 
Abercrombie), insists on having sex with her to 
seal the deal. 

The infamous Ivanova “sex dance" was, said 
director Jim Johnston, an idea inspired by Claudia 
Christian who wanted something funny to do. 

“We came up with that together because Claudia 
said. ‘What the hell are we going to do about 
this?’ So wc spent a couple of hours one 
afternoon deciding just how we could do this, 
because we said it can’t he like real sex. I said. 
'What wc have lo do is to really make fun of it 
and bewilder this guy,’ so togelher we canic up 
with this little dance and little chant, and wc sort 
of improvised it as w r c went along. Wc did about 
three or four lakes because she kept breaking up. 
Paul [Williams, the singer songwriter who played 
the ambassador’s assistant | was delightful and. of 
course, he helped because he was actually 
breaking up too. Chat was actually a pretty funny 
episode." 

In self defense, Sheridan kills a Minbari attacker 
who steals his link, only to find himself accused 
of murdering the alien, in “There All Honor Lies.” 


“Mayhe somebody should've labeled the 
future: some assembly required.” 

—Garibaldi to Franklin 


Hunter, i*rey 


** 1/2 


3 1 lw*5. #213 Written hv J. Michael Strut jiriLl Uiiwtrd bt 
Mmachrm HinrtiU. 

President Santiago’s personal physician. Dr. 
Everett Jacobs (Tony Stccdman) comes to the 
station looking for a means to escape Irom Special 
Intelligence agent Derek Cranston (Bcrnie Casey), 
lie’s carrying with him a data crystal with 
sensitive government information. He lied Earth 
with information which points to the new 
president as having prior knowledge that 
Santiago’s ship would blow up. Events become 
complicated when a lurker named Max (Richard 
Moll) captures the fugitive, and tries to gel a 
ransom but Garibaldi and Dr Franklin rescue him 
and the crystal and their task is to smuggle the 
good doctor off the station without Agent 
Cranston’s knowledge. To elude the enemy, 
Sheridan asks Kosh to hide the fugitive on the 
Vorlon ship. 




A pseudopod emerges on the Vorlon ship in 

which Kosh harbors President Santiago’s 
personal physician on the run, in “Hunter, Prey.” 

One of ihe unanswered questions in the B5 
lapesiry is that although President Clark was 
corrupt and influenced hy the Shadows, how 
was he able to accomplish his tusks so easily? 
Were Ihe people surrounding him so pliable? 
Where are the honest people? Larry DiTillio 
provided some answers. "What Joe’s saying is 
‘Let’s find the good people. There’s a few of 
them and you see them,* Everyone else is 
basically listening lo Clark. There's also a lot of 
Shadow' iniluence m the Earth government at 
the lime as well as Psi Corps. In World War II, 
not everyone agreed with the Nazi party. Hut the 
Nazi hud Ihe power and it you didn't agree w ith 
them, like the doctor, you'd likely be killed for 
your beliefs.” 

“What that episode showed is for honest 
people to be effective in that kind of situation, 
they have to act dishonestly. Ihcy have lo form 
conspiracies to do the right thing. If they tried to 
do it through normal channels, you’re going to get 
stepped on. Sheridan and his Conspiracy of Light 
really is a conspiracy. But it's a conspiracy of 
good people." 


“'Welcome to Babylon 5, the last best hope for 
a quick buck.'” 

“Commander." 

“But it's just demeaning. We’re not just 
some...deep spare franchise. 1'his station is 

aboul —Ivanova a n.l SHcrid.n 

There All the Honor Lies 1/2 

eti'IW. #215 Written lit I’rlrr flat id. IMm'Ird ht Michael 
Vejar. 

When a Minbari steals Sheridan's Imk, and 






















a better deal than Walter 
Koenig had ever expect¬ 
ed. He was originally of¬ 
fered the role of “Knight 
One” in "And the Sky 
Full of Stars.” but a heart 
attack sidelined him. 

Slraczynski generously 
offered Koenig a chance 
to play Besler at any 
time that was convenient 
for him and would adjust 
the schedules to make it 
possible. “It was one of 
those serendipitous oc¬ 
casions, even though the 
circumstances, initially, 
were rather dark and 
ominous," recalled Koe¬ 
nig. “There was a silver 
lining in this cloud. It 
was an opportunity to do 
a role that recurred on a 
more frequent basis than 
I think the original char¬ 
acter would have in 
‘And the Sky Full of 
Stars/ I don't think that 
character would have 
had the life that Bestcr 
had. particularly because 
he wasn’t part of the 
telepaths. And telepalhs 
became such a popular 
element in the B5 uni¬ 
verse." 

The Psi-Cop Bestcr 
appeared in 12 episodes 
throughout the life of 
the series. For Koenig, 
this was a chance to push aside a well- 
known Russian in a different SF universe 
and create something new. "The thing that 
was so appealing about BABYLON 5 was 
the growth in characters and situations," 
said Koenig. “There’s always transitions 
and transformations going on. People 
changed. Circumstances changed. They 
didn't go on a straight line. They veered left 
and right and different directions. The sto¬ 
rylines were not predictable. I know it’s fas¬ 
cinating for the audience, who loved the 
idea of sitting back and guessing where the 
stories were going to go and what’s going to 
happen to a character." 

An important incident in Sinclair's life 
occured during the events of “And the Sky 
Full of Stars” when two men, Knight One 
(Christopher Neame) and Two (Judson 
Scott), smuggled aboard the station a “cere¬ 
bral matrix" (a “virtual-reality Cybernet") 
and kidnapped Sinclair and put him under 
the matrix in order to discover the truth be¬ 
hind the Battle of the Line. Directed by 
Janet Greek in her first of many episodes 
for the series. “Sky" presented us with pow¬ 
erful surreal sequences depicting Sinclair’s 
memories on that fateful day 10 years ago. 

“It was really an interesting episode be¬ 


cause there was a lot of 
conversation about how 
to depict Sinclair's 
mind," said Janet Greek. 
“1 wanted to do it with 
real stark lighting, I 
wanted everything to fall 
off in the black and just 
spotlight the actors so 
that it was very harsh 
and strange. I wanted to 
do it almost like a dance. 
I put a crane in the Zoco- 
lo. Nobody thought that 
the crane was even going 
to fit. I remember I had 
to fight for that crane. 
They thought I was nuts! 
Here I was coming into 
this new show. I said. 
'I want a crane,' and 
they’re laughing. They 
thought it was a joke. I 
gave up a lot of other 
things in order to get that 
crane. 

“I really wanted to 
emphasize how alone 
Sinclair was. I broke all 
the rules because it was 
in somebody’s mind. 
There was no reality. 
The Knight popped up 
in different places. 
There were no rules of 
movement, no rules of 
anything. 

“It was very difficult 
because Michael O’Hare 
was just learning a lot 
about his character. 1 gave him a lot of de¬ 
tailed direction to help him. He was basical¬ 
ly acting in a vacuum, but I think he did a re¬ 
ally good job with it. We were all really ex¬ 
cited about what finally happened. The final 
result was really powerful and I wish they 
had done more of those kinds of things." 

Michael O’Hare recalled his BABYLON 
5 experience as an exciting exercise in 
putting out fires. “The most common thing 
said to me was, ‘Commander, we have a 
problem!’ So I was often in a problem solv¬ 
ing crisis management mode and the destiny 
of the station lay on my shoulders," said 
O'Hare. “It was my responsibility as an ac¬ 
tor, I felt, to bring out the reality of the situa¬ 
tion. because it’s a fantasy television show 
after all. To try to bring as much reality to 
what it would be like to be in that situation in 
space. If you made any enormous mistake 
and some gaping hole is blown in the hull, in 
spite of the modern technology some 250 
years from now, everybody would be dead. I 
tried to bring that kind of reality to it.” 

Minbari secrets and the Jeffrey Sinclair 
story were character elements that were 
heavily played up during the first season, 
however because of unexpected changes 
beginning in the second season with the in- 


he s shirt, the Captain is accused of murdering the 
alien. Both Garibaldi and Delcnn conduct 
investigations into the incident. Sheridan claims 
self-defense and meets with a Minbari witness, 
Ashun (Sean (iregory Sullivan), for interrogation. 
Guinevere Corey (Julie Caitlin Brown) arrives as 
the Captain’s lawyer Kosh insists that Sheridan 
continue their “lessons” together. He takes 
Sheridan to a deep, unused area where there is 
“one moment of perfect beauty.” The truth 
emerges when tinnier coaxes a confession from 
Ashan that the Captain was being framed for his 
actions during Ihe Furth/Minbari war, for having 
destroyed ihe Minbari cruiser, Ihe Black Star. 

“I just love John lacovelii’s whole scenic 
design there. He did so much with so tittle,” said 
Bruce Boxteitner, referring to the moment in this 
episode, where Kosh delivered another one of his 
cryptic “lessons" that would teach him how to 
fight legends. “1 thought that was very inventive, 
creating that set and everything. It was very 
simplistically done." 

If anyone's confused and wondered, 'Just what 
were these mysterious lessons?* Jeffrey Willorth 
explained. “J think they were more than history 
lessons. Sheridan needed to understand what he 
was about to encounter in the impending war, I 
also would like to think tho.se lessons were 
unconscious lessons. They were not lessons he 
was supposed to be cognizant of; that he 
understood or knew. What was really going on 
there was pieces of Kosh that were going to live 
inside of Sheridan. And we saw that in 'Falling 
Toward Apotheosis,* when Kosh reveals itself and 
comes out to wrestle with the other Kosh. 

"We think of it as lessons hut actually it’s 
pieces of Kosh that was actually being transferred 
into Sheridan's body.” 


“The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the 

gr* _ f# 

—Subliminal text during 
Psi-Corps commercial 
“Narns declared war first!" 

—Londo 

And Now for a Word *** 

5/J/IW. #214 Written by J. Michael SlnimnsU. Directed by 
Marin Ilil *■<>. 

An 1-arlh television crew spends 3(> hours on 
Babylon 5 just as the Narn officially declare war 
on the Ccntauri. As reporter Cynthia Torque man 
(Kim Zimmer) films her approach to the station, a 
Narn ship destroys a Centauri transport which they 
claim was secretly carrying weapons of mass 
destruction. A Centauri cruiser appears followed 
by a Narn Cruiser and tvhilc Sheridan tries to get 
at the truth and keep war from breaking out, the 
two ships destroy each other in front of the TV 
cameras. Torqueman interviews various officials 
on the station and a few on tarlh and we gel to see 
a Psi-Corps TV commercial. 

"I have to say that’s probably my least favorite 
episode,” said Larry DiTillio. “It was 


Delenn breaks down during an interview tor ISN 
TV news after war breaks out between the Narn 
and the Centauri in “And Now For A Word." 



£ £ The thing that was so 
appealing about B5 
was the growth in char¬ 
acters and situations. 
Circumstances changed. 
The storylines were 
not predictable. 5J 

—Actor, Walter Koenig— 



Producer John Copeland on the set, 
pitched by Straczynski on B5 after their 
kid show CAPTAIN POWER got the axe. 


59 


. 

















an experiment of different styles and lone. The 
experiment was just not completely successful. 

It didn't maintain the tone. It seemed like a very 
eonirivcd episode because now the camera crew 
was there, t fell Sheridan seemed a little naive. I 
thought. *(»eez, these people are not going to 
say good things about you and you really should 
know about that given what’s going on.’ Me 
kind of accepts that they would do a balanced 
report 1 thought he accepted that a little loo 
fast. 1 would have been leery of the media 
because the media is controlled by Barth and 
EarthGov. Hut if he was leery, then you couldn't 
have the episode. He had to let them come 
onboard the station and film. A lot of it bothered 
me.” 

Referring to the fourth season episode, 
"Illusion of Truth." which employed a similar 
device. I)i lillio feels the same way. "They’re 
being awfully trusting considering what’s going 
on. I wouldn't be this trusting to these people. I 
hated our characters to he stupid. Oddly enough, 
in GROPOS, I had a reporter character hut that got 
edited out because of |running| time. It was the 
same kind of thing, litis was a legitimate and 
decent reporter who just wanted It* get the story 
hut wasn’t really thinking about what happens 
when you release the story with all kinds of flaws 
in your story." 


“This is the only way. And we will tell you those 
answers. Hut Ik* w arned. Once you know his 
secret, once you know what we have known the 
last three years, you'll never sleep well again. 
Conte, Captain, (he greatest nightmare of our 
time is wailing for you” —Deleon to Sheridan 

In the Shadow oe Zhadiim ***12 

5 10 1995+ fit? Written by j. \1klud SimczyntJii Directed hi 

id t-nglc. 

Sheridan accidentally discovers that Morden 
(Ed Wasser) was a crewmember aboard the 
science vessel The Icarus, in w hich his wife Anna 
also served, lie arrests the man believed to be 
dead and interrogates him to discover what 
became of that ill-fated voyage to Z'ha'dum. 
Morden explains that he has no memory of the 
events that befell the Icarus. Vir, on behalf of the 
Centauri Republic, attempts to have Morden 
released under diplomatic immunity. Delcnn and 
Kosh also implore upon Sheridan to release the 
man. Delcnn and Kosh privately explain to him 
that Morden is an agent of the Shadows and that 
in order to prevent their enemy from attacking 
before the rest of the galaxy is ready for them. 
Kosh and Delcnn insists that Sheridan release the 
man who "is never alone?” After glimpsing 
strange, dark figures hovering over Morden 
through the surveillance cameras, Sheridan lets 
Morden out of confinement. Me extracts a 
promise from Kosh. “leach me how to fight 
them?" Hut Kosh also warns, “If you go to 
Z'ha'dum. you will die!” 


Sheridan glimpses the strange dark shapes of 
the Shadows around Morden on the surveillance 
cameras in "In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum.'' 



(reduction of a new 
Captain, this thread lost 
its potency. 

Difficult moral chal¬ 
lenges beckoned for 
Sinclair in "Believers." 

Alien parents of an ill 
young child refused to 
give Doctor Franklin 
permission for him to 
operate and save their 
son. Sinclair was lorn 
between the parents* 
adamant wishes and 
Franklin’s passionate 
desire to save the child. 

In the end. Franklin 
went ahead and per¬ 
formed the surgery, sav¬ 
ing the child, but the 
parents were horrified at 
this sacrilege. In accor¬ 
dance with their reli¬ 
gious beliefs, they no 
longer believed their 
son was theirs and in a 
ritual, thev killed the 
child. 

When the opportuni¬ 
ty came to write this 
script. Straczynski hand¬ 
ed it to his friend, veter¬ 
an novelist and screen¬ 
writer David Gerrold. “I 
said, ‘Oh. come on, Joe! 

Not the Christian Scien¬ 
tist story! Why me!?’" 

Gerrold recalled. "Of 
course, I had just adopt¬ 
ed a little boy. It was 
obvious whv me. He said, * Anyone else 
w ho would write it. the parents would come 
out us villains. Write it from the love of the 
parents for their kid.’" 

It was always the intention of the screen¬ 
writers to have (he child die at the end of 
the story. "Thai was from the very begin¬ 
ning," said Gerrold. "We had a long talk 
about it. [Series conceptual consultant) Har¬ 
lan (Lllisonj said, ‘You know, for this story 
to work, you gotta break our hearts.’ The 
only reason to do this story is to do some¬ 
thing nobody’s ever done before. ‘Let’s kill 
the kid.’ I'm not sure if it was my idea, 
Joe’s or Harlan’s, it just sort of happened. 
‘Well, of course we’re going to kill the kid!’ 
That’s a given from the beginning! What 
this is about, it's not about killing the kid, 
it’s about the dilemma of people’s belief 
systems and they’re all stuck in it." 

To Gerrold’s surprise, the story’s power¬ 
ful content resonated with the participants 
making the show. “One of the things that 
struck me as remarkable was how much the 
crew got involved in the story. People 
would come up and chat with me. It awak¬ 
ened so much stuff from their childhoods, 
things that hud happened that it was like a 
massive encounter session for a while be¬ 


cause sonic of these 
people got so caught up 
in the story, I was a little 
bit startled that the story 
had that much impact.” 

Moral dilemmas of a 
different kind also con¬ 
fronted Sinclair in “By 
Any Means Necessary” 
when blue-collar work¬ 
ers who kept the sta¬ 
tion’s Docking Bay run¬ 
ning smoothly decided 
to go on strike. In a 
script that had been de¬ 
scribed as “a plot that 
STAR TRLK would 
never have done!” Sin¬ 
clair had to find a quick 
solution before violence 
erupted between the 
dock workers and sta¬ 
tion security, who had 
been ordered by Farth to 
resolve the situation 
quickly. 

In a script penned by 
Straczynski’s wife, Kath¬ 
ryn Drennan, “By Any 
Means" was a chance to 
go deeper into the inner 
workings of the station 
and see how the wheels 
turned. 

“I sort of ran out of 
people there so I enlist¬ 
ed the crew,” said direc¬ 
tor Jim Johnston. “I put 
about half the crew in a 
lot of those group shots. 

“One of my beliefs about BABYLON 5 
was that it is supposed to be a space station 
of a quarter of a million people, and I want¬ 
ed to make it look like a quarter of a million 
people. I would always lobby for as many 
extras as possible, because I wanted a lot of 
people. I just think that it added to the feel¬ 
ing that they were in confined space with a 
lot of people. I always thought it added a lot 
of energy to the show.” 

Johnston was so spirited that he actually 
jumped into the fray himself. “About the 
fifth day of the shoot I realized that we were 
threatening to strike but we never really 
struck. So I called up [producer) John 
Copeland the night before the last big scene 
in the docking hall and I said, ‘I need anoth¬ 
er actor because I think I’ve got to cross the 
line and make it a strike.’ He said, ‘Well, 
the budget's already in to Warners and this 
and that, it’s another $4,500 and I can’t do 
it.’ All that next day it was bothering me 
that we didn't have this guy, so finally I 
couldn't stand it anymore, I went into 
makeup and put on one of these dock work¬ 
ers uniforms, put as much dirt on my face as 
possible, grabbed a wrench and got in the 
middle and I’m the one who says, ‘strike!’ 
That starts the chant, ‘Strike! Strike!'And 


f £ It was remarkable 
how much the crew got 
involved in the story. 
People would come and 
chat with me. It awak¬ 
ened so much stuff from 
their childhoods. 3 3 

—Screenwriter David Gerrold— 



"Soul Hunter" (Morgan W. Sheppard) 
attempts to kill Delenn and steal her soul 
in the show s second episode aired. 


60 



















During filming first season artists from makeup supplier Optic Nerve ready G’Kar and Delenn on the set. 


[the producers) never said a word to me. 
Never said. ‘Oh, that was nice.' They just 
let it go. And that was nice.” But please, 
don’t tell the Screen Actors Guild...” 

Looking over the six episodes he direct¬ 
ed during (his first season. Johnston noted 
“‘Soul Hunter* was one of my favorites be¬ 
cause it was mysterious and it had a very 
nice mystique to it. I gather it is one of the 
more popular ones." 

The “big picture” loomed heavily in 
“Signs and Portents.” Any episode that fur¬ 
thered the plot, or was part of the “story 
arc" was colloquially termed by Straczyns- 
ki as a “Wham" episode. 

A mysterious, yet handsome man 
named Morden (lid Wusser) approached 
each of the alien ambassadors and asked a 
simple question, “What do you want?” 
which elicited various responses. But the 
one response that set off a trigger came 
from Ambassador Mollari, who retorted, 
“You really want to know what I want? 
You really want to know the truth? I want 
my people to reclaim their rightful place in 
the galaxy. I want to see the Cenlauri 
stretch forth their hand again and com¬ 
mand the stars. 1 want a rebirth of glory, a 
renaissance of power!” 

With this reply, Mollari unknowingly 
and fatefully set his future. 

“We saw, initially, this man who is so 
indulgent and loves to drink, loves to 
chase the girls and loves to gamble, and 
yet has a bitterness underneath him,” said 
Jurasik. “If you put yourself in that spot, 
as Londo, think of the parts of you that are 
open to temptation, open to excess. Those 
arc, in fact, your Achilles heel. And we 
see that exposed. People move in on that. 
And of course he is tempted. And guess 
what? lie’s just not strong enough charac¬ 
ter-wise to hang in there and resist." 

Being the director that first introduced 
Morden to the audience. Janet Greek said 
that initially, she wasn't sure who he was. 


“I decided he was supposed to be Mordred 
from the King Arthur. I tried to make him 
somebody that looked great, but that you 
mistrusted immediately, but was really 
smooth. I didn't want him to be just sonic 
creepy old villain. I wanted him to be 
somebody that looked kind of slick. 
Someone in the image of a snake oil sales¬ 
man." 

Looking over the body of the first sea¬ 
son, story editor Larry DiTillio observed, 
“The first season is more or less episodic. 
We threw the kitchen sink at everybody. Ur. 
Franklin did basically nothing. We have 
David Gerrold's story ‘Believers' and one 
or two more that came along that featured 
Dr. Franklin. Richard |Biggs) is a good ac¬ 
tor, and he was a good character [but) he re¬ 
ally did nothing the first year. In the second 
year, however, he came into his own. You 
saw more stories on him. 

“Somewhat the same as with G’Kar. The 
first year, he was more or less being played 
for comic relief or a buffoon, so did Londo. 
In the second year they became much more 
serious characters as they developed and as 
the situation developed.” 

From director Bruce Seth Green's per¬ 
spective. although he admired Straczynski’s 
dedication to defining a brand-new uni¬ 
verse, he also sensed, “They weren't 
thrilled with the way the series was turning 
out. Joe always knew what he wanted but I 
don’t think he was getting what he wanted. 
I’m not saying that’s because of the direc¬ 
tors that were chosen, although that con¬ 
tributed. directors were shooting the shows 
in a very standard way. They weren't trying 
to convey much in the way of style. But it 
was also because anything new needs a 
shakedown period. The characters, the ac¬ 
tors were all finding themselves. There’s a 
leap from the page to the screen, creatively, 
and perhaps the executive producers were 
hoping the leap would be more consistent 
with what their inner vision was." 


Jen; keeps referring to the heroic epic from 
Arthur to Ulysses," said Unite Boxleitncr. “In all 
ihese heroic stories you have to follow this main 
guy. seeing things through their experiences lie 
loves to refer hack to all the classic heroic myths. 
Joe wanted me lo think of certain historical 
figures. He kept telling me: think of Eisenhower. 
Think of McArthur. In one of my favorite episodes 
'The Shadow of Z’ha’dum,’ I had this speech 
about Churchill and Coventry. Hut I think of the 
Anhurian character. Arthur brought all the tribes 
of Britons together and then lost it. That was the 
heroic tragedy that it crumbled, and then they 
fought to Tcbuild it again. And that seems to be in 
every myth." 


“I haw a destiny to fulfill. One that will lake 
our people hack to a golden age.” 

—Londo 

Knives ** 1/2 

5/17/1W. Kit WrittM by Larry IXTWb. Directed by Sirphtn 
hoary. 

Londo's old friend and dueling partner. Ur/a 
Jaddo (Carmen Argcn/iano) shows up and 
Sheridan is possessed by an entity that is displaced 
in lime from the rift where Babylon *t disappeared. 
Londo finds that Ur/a is on the opposite sides of 
the political arena, and is forced to duel him Ur/a 
sacrifices his life so that his family may be 
brought under Londo s protection Afterwards 
lawdo realizes he should keep more up 10 dale on 
the politics at home. 

“1 wanted to do a sword fight, what can I tell 
you?" chuckled t)i Illlio. “t wanted to go through 
the fact that not every Ccntauri was like Londo 
and Rcfa. There were decent Ccntauri. That 
episode falls in a very key spot in the second year 
arc. and I wanted to show that Londo does realize 
that he’s making a choice. He says 'The blood is 
on my hands. The path is clear and I can’t stop it 
now.* Joe then takes it to bigger heights as the 
season goes to the end. Anil even refers back to 
Knives’when Londo says lo Refa. ‘I’ve already 
lost one friend, what more do you want.’ It’s my 
theory that up to that point, taindo really didn’t 
realize what he was doing. Vir becomes the voice 
of reason, and says he can stop. But Londo says 
'No I can’t, because t did make the choice now. I 
will see where it takes me. ’ That I think is his 
incredible tragedy.” 



Londo cradles the body ot old friend and dueling 
partner Urza Jaddo (Carmen Argenziano) after 
running him through in “Knives.” 


“I will set* vou in a place where no shadows 
fall." 

—Helen n to Sheridan 

Co n tensions & Lam entatic ins *** 

$ 24 IW5,12IK WnMcn In J. Mkfcirl Mrai /wiski. fhrrctrd by 
Korn i it mm. 

An alien plague strikes the Markab race and is 
100% contagious and fatal. Panic ensues because 
no one knows whether it is contagious lo any other 


61 












STAR TREK’s Chekov finds the role of his career in 
Bester ,; a malicious Psi Cop with complex shadings. 


By Sue Uram 

Portraying a purely evil character in 
television's BABYLON 5 series should 
be atypical for the actor who played the 
affable Mr. Chekov in the original 
STAR TREK. Not so. Walter Koenig 
has managed to change his smiling 
Chekov grin into a grimace and become 
the sinister Psi Cop, Bester. ‘The whole 
thing about my character of Chekov is 
that in the 30 years I played him, what 
did you really learn about him?" he 
says, "You knew he was kind of a wise 
guy, spunky. What Joe Straczynski did 
was open this role up for me, add new 
elements. I then had to find a way to in¬ 
corporate and justify them. My initial 
thinking was to play this as a sinister 
and arrogant guy who is an unfeeling 
character. 1 think that even the most 
heinous human being, w'ith very few 
exceptions, was not born that way. 
Bester may have been predisposed but 
then was manipulated by events." 
Koenig's initial reaction to the part was 
to go with the “bad guy” emphasis on 
the character. Straczynski continued to 
expand the parameters of Bester so that 
his personality became more dimen¬ 
sional. 

"Actually, I prefer playing this type 
of evil character," said Koenig. “Bester 
is interesting and I love the power that 
he has. The wonderful thing about be¬ 
ing an actor is that it gives you license to 
act out those things the socialization 
process has taught you to inhibit. I am 
perfectly satisfied to live my life on the 
right side of the law. At the same time, I 
feel that mankind is vested with humani¬ 
tarian genes and atavistic aggressive 
genes as well. Within the parameters of a 
character, I am allowed to express some 
of that aggression and it just feels good. I 
am not hurting anybody and I don’t have 
to worry about my conscience afterwards. 
I like the idea of exploring (hat aspect of 
myself.” 



Koenig managed lo change his smiling Chekov grin into a 
grimace to become the sinister Psi Cop Bester. “Actually, I 
prefer playing this type of evil character," said Koenig. 


In order lo portray Bester, Koenig said 
he lapped into a basic human trait. "If I talk 
about it genetically, I think that those char¬ 
acteristics are there—those aggressive feel¬ 
ings exist in everyone. We have been taught 
lo suppress those feelings as a course for 
survival in society. One cannot be a func¬ 
tioning positive human being if that is al¬ 
lowed to go awry." 

According to the comic book series 
based on Babylon 5, Bester was a lonely 
child who was never accepted by his peers 
eventually turning to the Psi Corp where he 
finds his niche. "To base his evil solely on 


his childhood is sort of instant analysis," 
said Koenig. "1 decided on some person¬ 
al things for Bester early on in the show 
which I have carried through to flesh-out 
the character. You know realistically 
speaking, everyone on Babylon 5 is 
about two and one half feet taller than I 
am. So. I am able to lap into the fact that 
as a kid I did feel a certain degree of in¬ 
adequacy because I was short. I can then 
translate these feelings of inadequacy 
easily into anger or hostility. Although I 
should point out that I was angry at fate 
and not any certain individuals from my 
childhood. Whereas Walter Koenig 
would then turn this feeling upon himself 
and feel sorry for himself. Bester uses 
that to maintain his power. Bester gives 
you the impression that no matter how 
strong that you feel you are, he is 
stronger." 

One of the traits that Koenig has in¬ 
corporated into his portrayal of Bester 
is a manifestation of a physical weak¬ 
ness. “I use the clenched left fist as a 
character trait for Bester which no one 
seems to notice," he explained. “My 
left hand never opens while I am in 
character. If you watch the show r close¬ 
ly, Bester does everything with his right 
hand although, in reality. Walter Koenig 
is left-handed. It is my private little cue 
that I use lo give me the feeling of hav¬ 
ing lo be all the more pugnacious and 
defiant. That I have a handicap and 
rather than feel sorry for myself, I use it to 
generate feelings of power." 

Koenig pointed out that it is not incon¬ 
sistent to let the other side of Bester shine 
through particularly as he is showcased in 
the episode “Ship Of Tears." Describing this 
show as "the best job in television that 1 
have ever had," Koenig revealed that the 
evil Psi Cop Bester actually develops human 
feelings. The plot line centers around a 
transport ship filled with specially trained 
psychics in cryogenic freeze who are en 
route to man the alien Shadow crafts. These 
psychics have been surgically altered so that 


62 








Koenig's Bester and assistant Kelsey (Felicity Waterman) keep an eye on Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) as they 
search the station for a rogue telepath who has assumed godlike powers in first season's "Mind War." 


they are compatible with 
the Shadow controls and 
can then successfully 
merge with the ships. 

Bester appears on BAB¬ 
YLON 5 to induce Sher¬ 
idan to intercept that 
ship attempting to con¬ 
vince the crew that his 
motives are beneficial to 
them as it supposedly is 
said to contain weapons 
to be used against the 
space station. 

‘'This particular epi¬ 
sode is a real showcase 
not only for me, but for Bester as a charac¬ 
ter,” Koenig said. “It’s a surprise to learn 
that Bester has some humanity. Bester has a 
secret love, who is part of this psychic group 
and who is carrying his child.” tester's mar¬ 
riage as described in a earlier episode is ex¬ 
plained by his mention that this liaison was 
arranged merely to genctieally improve the 
breed of Psi Cops. Although Koenig de¬ 
scribed this role as not being a “huge emo¬ 
tional piece,” he quickly added that there is 
an impressive amount of subtlety which 
gives his character more dimension. 

“Ship Of Tears” is described by Koenig 
as a turning point for his character. “Al¬ 
though he does have feelings. Bester does 
not want to appear as if he is vulnerable be¬ 
cause he does not want to be hurl," Koenig 
said. “He develops a veneer, a patina of au¬ 
thority, disdain and arrogance which is real¬ 
ly not all of who he is. With Bester I have 
had the opportunity to explore the entire 
character even if I only make two guest ap¬ 
pearances a year.” In actuality, Bester ap¬ 
peared in just one episode the first season, 
one second season, and two the third season. 
It is not until the fourth season that the char¬ 


acter is is given full 
reign as the leader of the 
mysteriously evil Psi 
Corp. 

Fifth season saw an 
increased resemblance 
of the Psi Corp to Nazi 
Germany, particularly 
the infamous SS. “I do 
not think that this is nec¬ 
essarily a comparison to 
Nazi Germany,” Koenig 
said. “It signifies an op¬ 
pressive, evil force. It is 
a shorthand method of 
helping to define who 
the antagonists are. This type of costuming 
has been going on forever. In the old West¬ 
erns, the cowboys in the black hats were al¬ 
ways the bad guys. I feel that it is an expres¬ 
sion of that type of thing. 

“Even if the Psi Corp was espousing 
something in a derogatory ethnic manner. 1 
would not be offended by it. Because the 
overall concept of the show is one which is 
very humanistic and very idealistic. Joe 
Straczynski is an individual with a great 
heart and deep social conscience. Some¬ 
body has to be the bad guy, to provide the 
conflict and make the point that good wins 
out over evil. The reason I find the role at¬ 
tractive is because it is a challenge for me 
as an actor. Once I know that I am not in a 
piece that propagandizes an ideology that I 
cannot tolerate, then my concern is how 
well-written is the character and how chal¬ 
lenging is it for me as an actor. That alone 
becomes my responsibility.” 

For trivia buffs, Koenig’s wife, Judy 
Levitt, made a guest appearance in the show. 
Levitt was seen as the attractive red-headed 
Psi Cop in the episodes “A Race Through 
Dark Places” and “Dust To Dust.” 


£ £ Joe Straczynski is an 
individual with a great 
heart and a deep social 
conscience. Somebody 
has to be the bad guy 
to make the point that 
good wins over evil. 99 

-Actor Walter Koenig — 


species. The Markahs quarantine themselves into 
an unused area and Dclenn and larnnier volunteer 
to minister to the sick whhuut knowing if they can 
catch the disease. Dr Franklin races to find a cure 
or a vaccination from scratch He discovers the 
answer but not in time to save the Markahs. In the 
quarantined area, the two Minburis are the only 
ones left alive. Reports come in that the plague 
has wiped out the entire Markah race. Sheridan is 
invited to a Minbari ritual feast and falls asleep 
during one of the periods of contemplation. 

This episode's most emotionally churning 
scenes, where the Markahs die in isolation helped 
only by Dclenn and Lennier was very affecting for 
the actors, said Larry DiTillio. ‘ More so for Mira 
than Bill. Remember Bill was practically born on 
a soundstage and his perspective is basically 'this 
is my job for today.* Mira, however, found a lot of 
resonance in the script relating to her former 
Yugoslavian background." 

Optic Nerve created many alien masks for all 
the extras play ing Markahs who did not have any 
nostrils. “The alien masks had invisible slits 
around the nasal areas through which actors could 
breathe.” said DiTillio. 

"I actually like these big, elaborate scenes. I 
think they're spectacular,” said John Vulich who 
created about till Markah masks. ”1 liked the 
challenge of achieving those numbers.” 

Historically speaking, the tale reflected the 
Black Death tragedy that ravaged Europe during 
the !4ih Century. “Joe is a history buff and many 
plots in the B5 universe revolved around incidents 
similar to ones that had already occurred in human 
history," explained DiTillio. 



Dr. Franklin and a Markab doctor race to find the 
cure to a plague that is wiping out the Markab 
race In "Confessions and Lamentations." 


“You blew my cover! You’re dead. Do you hear 
me, you're dead! The Corps is Mother, the Corps 
is Father. You're dead, Lyta Alexander. I lie corps 
will find you.” 

—Tatia Winters screaming to Lyta 

Divided Loyalties ★** 1/2 

K A/ll; 1995, *220 Writ ltd h y J F Micbirl Stnciymki. Utrrcltd 
ti> Jr%u* SaUidor Im ime 

l.yta Alexander (Patricia Tallman). H5’s 
former resident tclcpath returns to the station with 
a warning: one of them is a traitor A secret Psi 
Corps project has been implanting false 
personalities into people, submerged so deeply in 
the subconscious that the person isn't aware and it 
can't be scanned. Lyta has the password that 
activates the false personality and wants to 
discover who is the traitor. The command slaff, 
particularly Ivanova, balks at l.yta’s request to 
scan each of them to discover who will respond to 
the password. Because of a problem with her 
cubicle, Ivanova offers Talia a place to stay for a 
few days. Ivanova privately reveals to Sheridan 
that she's a latent telepath. To find the traitor, 
Sheridan conducts a staff review so that Lyta can 
silently scan each of (hem. hailing to find their 

vriQiinued on pair W 


63 




































Foundation Imaging ushered in 
a new era of visual effects for TV. 


quality and sophistication of the SFX natu¬ 
rally evolved and improved. 

As ITs co-founder. Ron Thornton, a na¬ 
tive Brit, began in the film business con¬ 
structing props and miniatures for BBC 
productions like DOCTOR WHO and 
BLAKE'S 7. Emigrating to the United 
States in 1984, he continued working with 
miniatures for COMMANDO and SPACE- 
BALLS. But it wasn't until 1987 when he 
was introduced to the Amiga computer dur¬ 
ing the production of CAPTAIN POWER 
AND THE SOLDIERS OF THE FUTURE 
that he came to discover and began working 
with computer generated images (CGI) as a 
means to eliminate traditional miniature 
work. The seminal graphics work complet¬ 
ed for that one-season scries was a direct 
precursor to making BABYLON 5 a reality. 

Adam “Mojo" Lcbowitz was Foundation 
Imaging's first employee. He was hired in 
June 1992 as an assistant animator with 
Richard Payne and Mark Swain to work on 
“The Gathering." He continued with the series 
and eventually was promoted to senior anima¬ 
tor during the second season. "We did a lot of 
the design work together,” noted Lcbowitz. "I 
designed the Centauri War Bird." 

When FI hired him in 1993, John Teska 
was already a veteran SFX artist in Holly¬ 
wood, working on such films as DEMOLI¬ 
TION MAN and TREMORS. But he was us¬ 
ing traditional methods to create those effects. 
While working on those films by day, he 
taught himself Lightwave 3D at night. BABY¬ 
LON 5 was Teska’s introduction to the world 
of CGI effects. "My background has been with 
creature effects, so I tend to grab that up,” said 
Teska. "Mojo is just the ace w ith space battles 
so when a space battle came along generally 
that would head in his direction.” 

"When we first started on the pilot, we 
gained Straczynski's trust,” said Ron 
Thornton. "We said. ‘Ixrok we're not going 
to screw you up. We’re going to give more 
than you can possibly expect for what 
you’re paying for, but trust us!’ 

"What we’ve done is avoided some of 
these shows’ pitfalls where effects teams 


By Frank Garcia 
and Robert T Garcia 

On the strength of Joe Straczynski's pre¬ 
sentation to Warner Brothers Television, 
BABYLON 5 was made possible, and a new - 
age in television special effects was bom. IX- 
served credit goes to visual special effects de¬ 
signer Ron Thornton and his partner Paul Bei- 
gle-Bryant. It was Thornton's talent that pro¬ 
duced the computer-generated presentation 
reel. Together, Thornton and Bryant formed 
Foundation Imaging and assembled a team of 
computer SFX artists who were, in 1993, 
armed with a large bank of 16 connected Ami¬ 


Foundation Imaging co-founder Ron Thornton, the 
man behind the effects demo reel that sold the 
series to Warner Bros, making TV effects history. 

ga desktop computers that formed the core 
equipment which generated what eventually 
became Emmy-winning special visual effects. 

Without the advent of new’ technology, 
specifically NewTek's Video Toaster com¬ 
puter system and the Lightwave 3D soft¬ 
ware, BABYLON 5 would not have been 
possible. The ability to create feature-film 
quality special effects using something oth¬ 
er than traditional SFX-generating tech¬ 
niques is w hat gave the series its cutting 
edge quality and economics to make the 
project viable. As the scries developed, the 

64 








The Babylon S station 
in orbit, CGI effects 
created by Foundation 
Imaging. Their Emmy* 
winning work for the 
series ushered in the 
age of Inexpensive 
desktop computer efx. 
Left: The Vorton ships. 
Below: Nam cruiser. 












I 

large), everyone's angry and tense until Lyta sends 
the password lo Talia Winters. The programmed 
personality surfaces and destroys the real Talia. 
Before leav ing. Lyta visits Ambassador Kosh who 
once again reveals his true visage to her. 

Straczynski merely hinted of the intimate 
relationship that had developed between Susan 
and Talia. I^irry DiTillio would have approached it 
differently. “It was kind of walked around very 
gingerly, that was a mistake." said DiTillio. "I 
thought Ihcv should hit it right on the head like 
they did on DEEP SPACE NINE. In 2IKI years, 
we’ll probably he over our homophobia. But who 
knows?" 

With this epividc. it is now very likely that 
Talia Winters was "Control" from Bureau 13, first 
hinted in the first season epis<»de. "A Spider in the 
Web.” 


Starfury fighters. CGI effects created for BABYLON 5 toy Netter Digital, which took over effects work on the 
series for its fourth and fifth seasons, an Inhouse facility owned by B5 executive producer Douglas Netter. 


have to go through several layers of produc¬ 
ers to approve shots. Now you should leave 
the people who are specialists in one partic¬ 
ular thing to do their job, and don’t interfere 
with it. We will know the best effect to put 
in there a lot better than any producer will.” 

FI’s initial task during the series' first 
season was mighty. The orders were to liter¬ 
ally build a universe outside the Babylon 5 
station and make it look real and not com¬ 
puter-generated. FI 's job. in addition to hav¬ 
ing a five-mile long, rotating hunk of steel 
floating over Epsilon 3. was to design and 
create spacecrafts for four galactic species. 
There was the licet of one-man “Starfury" 
spacecrafts that were part of Babylon 5’s 
defense grid, distinctive spacecraft designs 
for the Minhuri, the Nam and the Centauri. 
Plus, there was the Earth Alliance battle¬ 
cruisers, Most prominently, there was the 
frightening and powerful enemy—the black 
and spidery Shadows. 

“People always tell us we're doing 
things so differently, and it's the best we've 
ever seen," said Lebowitz. “I feel we don't 
come to work with ihe altitude ‘Let's be re¬ 
ally different today and let’s blow them 
away w ith something they’ve never seen 
before.’ We all come into work w ith the 
idea of doing the best job we can.” 

“I think the end result is just the sum of 
all the parts," added Teska. “We have the 
freedom, the technology and the drive. And 
we’re trying to put a little more emotion 
and pizazz in all the shots.” 

“Traditional effects for a good space bat¬ 
tle would take you weeks and dozens of 
people," said Lcibowitz. “There was a 
much larger barrier between shots in some¬ 
one's head and what winds up on screen. 
For us, I can read a script and sec a shot 


written on paper, and get a really nice idea 
in my head. And in a day, that shot is more 
or less blocked out and done because there 
is much less a stumbling block between the 
idea and what shows up on the screen. 
Maybe for the first time, creative people 
have an easier job of getting their ideas up 
on the screen. You don’t have to explain it 
to a hundred people, and they have to ex¬ 
plain it to their people and when problems 
happen, you have to rethink the shot.” 

For example, when it came time to de¬ 
sign the Shadow vessels, inspiration came 
from an unusual source. “The week before I 
built it, there was a PBS documentary on 
black widow spiders," Thornton said. “My 
wife and I saw it and we just couldn't sleep 
after that, it was so horrible. They had these 
big close-ups of this spider actually biting. 
They'd dressed a piece of pork or something 
to look like an arm and they put a slight 
electric shock or something into the ’arm* to 
make the spider bite and it was just 'eeeetu." 
And it comes from that. I wanted to get the 
same sort of feeling you get from a black 
w idow. When you see one of those things, 
you know it’s not good for you. So I wanted 
really wicked looking spikey things.” 

Said Lebowitz, “I love animating the 
Shadowman; the ship itself has such a feel 
that every lime you do a shot with it, it just 
sort of dictates how you’re going to photo¬ 
graph it. The way it moves, the way you 
don’t quite see the whole thing at any given 
time. It has a ballet to its motion. I know 
something funny that came out of it. Ron 
designed the ship to move face first with the 
legs behind it, but in ‘The Coming of Shad¬ 
ows’ we had a huge battle with the Shadow 
men and in doing the animation I kind of 
liked the way they worked with the legs 


Garibaldi drags away Talia Winters (Andrea 
Thompson), exposed as a Psi Corps traitor, 
screaming ' You're dead!” in "Divided Loyalties.’ 


“No dictator, no invader can hold an 
imprisoned population by force of arms 
forever. There is no greater power in Ihe 
universe than the need for freedom. Attains! 
that power governments and tyrants and 
armies can not stand. T he Centauri learned this 
lesson once. We will teach it to them again.” 

—(i’Kar to Ihe council when 
he is expelled as ambassador 

The Long. 

Twilu.htStki ccit: ***★ 

HI IN 1995. #219 W ultra h% J. Mitfurl S|r«H/>DvU Him fid 
by Jfttin t\ Khnn 111 

The Narn arc planning an all-out attack on 
Corash 7, the Centauri’s main supply center, hut 
the Centauri learn of it ami arrange for the Shadow- 
ships to wipe out the Narn Heel, while the 
Centauri, using outlawed weapons pound the Narn 
homework! hack into Ihe Slone Age. Ci’Kar 
suspects a trap hut Warmaster listen (W. Morgan 
Sheppard) won’t listen. Jusl before surrendering, 
the Kha'Ri orders (i'Kar to request sanctuary on 
Babylon 3. 

Sheridan takes a stand: Babylon 5 will be the 
one point of light to stand against the army of 
darkness. Draal (John Schuck) invites Sheridan 
and Dclcnn down to the planet and pledges his 
help and Sheridan meets the Rangers for the first 
time. 

For the first time, the phrase “army of light" is 
enunciated by Sheridan in his meeting with the 
Rangers when equal authority is bestowed upon 
him by Delcnn 

“It was a shame we lost the original Draal.” 
said Larry DiTillio. referring to actor la»uis 
Turennc who originated the character in Voice in 
the Wilderness ‘“He got sick and couldn't play ihe 
part al ihe time. Wc filled in with John Shuck who 
just said. ‘Well, the machine made me look 
younger..,’That’s the cover story and you work 
with that. 

“The stuff with /-it hr as was priceless. That’s 
ihe greatest character to ever come out of B5. Tim 

66 














facing you. So wc had 
these legs, these big fin¬ 
gers right in your face. I 
thought that was more 
menacing but we had 
established that they 
flew the other way.** 

“But we took it from 
there and said. 'No. they 
go every way,*” inter¬ 
jected Thornton. 

“So we figured when 
they’re Hying they have 
the legs behind them but 
their battle posture is ei¬ 
ther way around." said 
Lcbowitz. 

When the Shadow- 
vessels engaged in bat¬ 
tle, their powerful lasers 
just lashed out and cut 
through their opponents 
like butler. "The idea 
w as that they arc just so 
evil that they don't even 
have to aim,” said Lcb¬ 
owitz. “They just fire in 
the general direction and 
they move the beam un¬ 
til it just slices through 
the ship. Just si ice-and- 
dice like a big ole light 
sabre or something. But 
1 think that even though 
it’s just a laser weapon 
firing, the way we do it 
just feels nastier." 

Going even further, 

Thornton declared, "Peo¬ 
ple are lucky they’re get¬ 
ting a shot. In previous instances, [other pro¬ 
ductions) would ask. ‘Can we get a shot' or do 
we all have to watch a screen and say. ‘Look 
out, Look out?’They run out of money and they 
can’t do any more. And they have what we call 
'radio battles.’" Thornton refers to a practice 
where if a special effects shot is not available, 
it’s cheaper to just have the characters watch 
and convey the action via dialogue. 

"We get scripts pretty far in advance, but 
they catch up with us,” explained Lcbowitz. 
“what happens is wc gel a monster of a 
script, and if we’re lucky we'll get a show 
that’s light on effects. It winds up that we’re 
working on two or three shows at a time. Or 
racing to get them out the door. But we’re all 
very proud that not once have we gotten a 
script and said. ‘We're sorry but we can’t do 
this. Wc don’t have the time or the money.’ 
We’ve done everything they've asked for.” 

“I remember there have been times when 
Mojo has added shots,” quipped Teska. 

With rapid technological advances helping 
creative technicians realize their wildest 
dreams, “Mojo,” Teska and Thornton all agree 
that the formation of Foundation Imaging was 
on the ground floor of a new beginning in 
modern filmmaking. “We may see a renais¬ 
sance in special effects, because all of these 


effects artists who have 
been working for years 
are starting to use the 
computer.” said Lebo- 
witz. “Maybe for the first 
lime, they’ll be able to 
get their ideas out.” 

"We try and convince 
people to do it,” injected 
Thornton. “The tradi¬ 
tional guys often say, 
*Oh boy, you guvs are 
going to put us out of 
business.’ We say au 
contraire. The best 
thing you can do is learn 
how to use it. Any of us 
can teach a good effects 
guy how to use a com¬ 
puter in a matter of 
weeks. We can’t teach u 
guy who just sat coding 
ten years of art experi¬ 
ence. That’s why a lot of 
these CGI places pro¬ 
duce crap." 

One of the very first 
things Thornton said to 
Straczynski as they be¬ 
gun the B> project was 
"Just write what you 
want, and we’ll figure 
out how to do it." 

These fellows say the 
future of visual special 
effects, particularly for 
television, is exciting 
and revolutionary. In 
their eyes, the best is yet 
to come. “Special ef¬ 
fects are beginning to move in different di¬ 
rections, like the Silicon Studio from Sili¬ 
con Graphics is a box designed just to com- 
puter-generate sets in real time,” said 
Lcbowitz. “It will change the entire indus¬ 
try in just generating sets. A soap opera will 
be able to afford to have scenes in France 
and Tokyo and New York. In 10 or 20 vears. 

W -F 

digital technology will enable anyone with 
the skills to create wonderful visual effects. 
Right now we’re in the trends of movies 
that everyone has to be bigger and better 
and more stunning than the next person, and 
nobody cares about the story anymore. 1 
think in 2(1 years when good visual effects 
will be cheap and easy, Hollywood is going 
to find that the only advantage they have 
left is creativity—story." 

At the end of BABYLON 5’s third season, 
Foundation Imaging parted ways with Baby¬ 
lonian Productions and moved on to other 
projects, one of them STAR TREK: VOY¬ 
AGER. Netter Digital Imaging was brought 
in as an “in-house” facility to service the 
needs of the series' fourth and fifth season. 
Owned by B5 executive producer Douglas 
Netter, only two employees, Patrick Perez 
and Shunt Jordan, from FI stayed behind and 
continued to work for the series. 


£ £ When we started on 
the pilot, we gained Stra- 
czynski’s trust. We said, 
‘We’re not going to screw 
you up. We'll give more 
than you can expect for 
what you're paying for. 5 5 

—Fx designer Ron Thornton— 



Foundation Imaging rendered Kosh as a 
creature of light, appearing as a Minbari 
angel to Delenn in “Fall Of Night." 



G'Kar requests B5 sanctuary and gives a speech 
about freedom to Londo when he's thrown off 
the council in “The Long, Twilight Struggle." 


Choate did such a good job in playing the 
character and Joe did such a good job in writing 
him." 


“You have the audacity to presume that you are 
on a mission from (iod, embarked upon a holy 
cause, I don’t believe it, and by the time you 
leave here, neither will you.” 

—-The inquisitor to Delenn 

Comes the Inqitkitok **** 

10 25 1995. #221 Written hi J. Michael Stnrivflvld, llirrclrd 
by Michael Vcjar, 

Kosh calls in an Inquisilor, Mr Sebastian 
(Wayne Alexander) to interrogate Delenn s 
motives and because she is willing to give her 
life to save Sheridan he knows her catling is 
pore. Sheridan discovers Mr Sebastian is Jack 
the Kipper whom the Vnrlons snaichcd 4(HI 
hundred years ago. Garibaldi can't let G'Kar 
receive illegal weapons on Ihe station but he can 
put him in contact with someone outside. G'Kar 
must prove his ability to deliver on his promises 
to keep control of the local Nanis and asks 
Sheridan to help gel a message from ihe Narn 
homeworld. 

Noted John lacovelli, series production 
designer. “The great thing for us ahoul each new 
director is they look at our same old tired sets and 
they say. Wow! I could shoot this differently. I 
can gel a new look out of this.' I'm amazed at 
Mike Vejar's ‘Comes the Inquisitor.' The show 
looks completely different! 

"No two people shoot the same sets the same 
way and so you end up getting a very different 
kind of look which is a great reason to have 
different directors. They just see things completely 
differently and they emphasize different characters 
differently and you can see a little bit different 
side of each of the characters, and of the sets as 
well. Some of ihe directors love showing off Ihe 


Sheridan is tortured by the Inquisitor, actually 
Jack the Ripper, recruited by the Vorlons 400 
years before, in "Comes the Inquisitor.'* 



67 























Composer Christopher Franke on 
mixing classical and electronic. 


Thanks to pioneering musician/compos¬ 
er Christopher Franke. BABYLON 5 boasts 
a powerful blend of classical and electronic 
music which, symphonically-spcaking. has 
taken the show above and beyond most of 
its rivals. 

"One of the great things about BABY¬ 
LON 5 is that each episode is very different 
to work on.” said Franke. “The show requires 
such a wide variety of music for all the differ¬ 
ent worlds, races, scenes and ideas, that I'm 
always experimenting with a combination of 
electronic and acoustic instruments. So 
BABYLON 5 is like a perfect platform for 
me to live out my thoughts and dreams.” 

Franke. a former member of Tangerine 
Dream whose film credits include UNI¬ 
VERSAL SOLDIER, was hired to provide 
BABYLON 5’s musical compositions fol¬ 
lowing the departure of Slew- 
art Copeland, who had worked 
on the show’s pilot, “The 
Gathering,” but was unable to 
score each episode of the 
weekly series due to other 
work commitments. Franke re¬ 
placed Copeland s “techobeat” 
score with a more effective 
blend of orchestra and elec¬ 
tronically-synthesized music. 

Around 50% of BABYLON 
5’s score is produced electroni¬ 
cally by Franke at his studio in California, 
whilst the remainder is performed on the 
other side of the world, by the Berlin Sym¬ 
phonic Film Orchestra in Germany. “We use 
a ‘CuSeeMe’ connection,” explained 
Franke. "It’s like a picture telephone. 1 can 
write the music in California and within sec¬ 
onds, it’s being played in Germany!” 

Franke worked closely with series cre¬ 
ator/executive producer J. Michael Stra- 
czynski, who supervised and approved all 
compositions for the show. Their collabora¬ 
tion reached new heights at the end of the 
series’ third season, when Franke provided 
the music for the two blues numbers written 
by Straczynski for "Walkabout.” 

“Joe is fantastic to me because he leaves 



me [to explore) my territory,” said Franke. 
“I can play my ideas out but he is also very 
helpful when 1 have to present something 
storywisc. He gives me guidance at certain 
moments, but at other times, he leaves me a 
lot of freedom. That’s turned out to be good, 
because I can then come up with some of 
my own ideas which he likes. So I think we 
have a very good symmetry there.” 

As well as providing BABYLON 5’s in¬ 
cidental and background music, Franke is 
also responsible for the show's main tunc, 
which he has drastically revised each sea¬ 
son to reflect the changes in the series’ 
over-arcing storyline. Although the title 
tunc has changed dramatically each year, 
Franke felt that each variation successfully 
represented the battle for peace which the 
crew of Babylon 5 have embarked upon. 

"The main theme is supposed to be a 
powerful, straightforward source of sound." 
he explained. “It has certain progressions 
which arc very classical. Some people think 
that it’s militaristic, because it uses a little 
military percussion. But it’s actually not 
meant to be militaristic; it's supposed to be 
forceful. The characters in the show arc 
peacemakers and. in a way, the main theme 
represents them drumming for peace.” 

David Bassom 



Franke, 85 
pioneer. 


scl and they do these wonderful dolly moves. 
Other directors, you hardly see any of Ihe set, 
which is fine because we've seen so much of it. 
But it helps with the variations.” 


“I’m hen- to sign a non-agression treaty with 
Ihe Centauri. Before I leave here, there will he 
an Farth-Centauri alliance that will guarantee 
peace for Karth. We will, at last, know peace in 
our time.” 

—Frederick taint/ to Sheridan and Ivanova 

Tilt; Fall of Night_ 

11/1/1995 .9111 Wnltrn In J. Mit had StoMyKihL IHrrctrd hv 
Janrt l.rrrk. 

Frederick I-ant/ (Roy Dotricc) of the Ministry 
of Peace and Mr. Wells (John Vickery) head of the 
Nightwalch signs a non-aggression pact with the 
Centauri. even though they are now attacking 
Dra/i and Pak’Ma’Ra territories. W r hen Sheridan 
gives sanctuary to a disabled Narn warship. 
Nightwatch informs Mr. Wells, but Sheridan 
refuses to turn them over to the Centauri. In the 
ensuing battle the station destroys a Centauri 
cruiser and as the Starfuries escort Ihe Narn ship 
through a jump gale, I^ntz and Wel ts are furious 
at Sheridan but since the Centauri fired first he's 
let off with a public apology to Ltndtt. On his way 
to the meeting, a Centauri plants a bomb in Ihe 
core shuttle and Sheridan jumps out. Kosh reveals 
himself to save Sheridan as he flies out of his 
encounter suil. I-very race secs something 
different, a being of light from their own race's 
particular myths. It is only ILondo who declares 
“Nothing! 1 saw nothing!” 

“From a production standpoint it was a little 
difficult to visually create what Ji>e was writing.” 
noted Jeffrey Willcrth. who was under Rush's 
curtains beginning in this second season. “I say 
that because they had to make decisions about 
[Kosh‘s| facial qualities. I think it was the best 
combination of W'hat we wanted to do and 
physically could do. 

"The whole sequence was a composite of three 
different people who became Kosh flying through 
the air. They dressed me up in skimpy little tights 
and put the flowing robe on me. I stood in front of 
a blue screen and l think I was the body that was 
floating up through the air." 

Actor Joshua Patton was the human and 
Minbari Kosh while uncrediled Wall Phelan was 
the Drazi/Narn Kosh. 

This was director Janet Greek's final episode 
until the fifth season's “No Compromises" 
because her agents fell she was doing too much 
science fiction and because Greek had a baby and 
wanted to write screenplays. 

“We like Janet a lot,” said Joe Strac/ynski. 

“She has a very strong visual style and is great at 
composition." Noted Greek. "It was an expensive 
epistnle and challenging. Filming a /ero-gravity 
sequence was new to actors and Ihe crew. We had 
a lot of experimentation to tin.” 

After the discovery of a Centauri bomb, Sheridan 
desperately jumps out of the core shuttle to what 
seems a certain death in “The Fall of Night.” 



68 


















The actress / singer on her brief, memorable role as 
Na'Toth, G’Kar s butt-kicking diplomatic attache. 


By David Bassom 

Caitlin Brown played Na'Toth in just 
five episodes of BABYLON 5’s first sea¬ 
son, but her uncompromising portrayal 
of the no-nonsense Narn won the actress 
a place in the hearts of the show’s view¬ 
ers around the world. She returned to tie- 
up the character in B-5*s last year and 
still receives fan mail for her work and 
makes guest appearances at BABYLON 
5 conventions. Brown feels both flattered 
and delighted by her continued associa¬ 
tion with the show. 

‘ I was talking to [scries creator/exec¬ 
utive producer! J°c Straczynski recently 
and I told him that working on BABY¬ 
LON 5 has affected my life in more ways 
than I could ever have imagined,** she 
explained. “Part of that has to do with the 
way that the show touches so many other 
lives. The fans are really lovely and the 
show makes them happy, which is what 
you want to do as an actor: you want to 
tell the story, touch people’s lives and 
hopefully move something in them. It’s 
great because I get to see it happening 
when 1 go to conventions and when I go 
on the Internet. So it’s very touching that 
people have remembered me for playing 
Na’Toth. I’m very happy.” 

Given Brown’s success and popularity in 
the role of Na’Toth, it’s surprising to learn 
that she almost missed out on the chance of 
serving as Ambassador's G’Kar’s diplomat¬ 
ic attache. Originally, Mary Woronov (of 
EATING RAOUL fame) landed the role of 
G’Kar’s aide Ko’Daih and was introduced 
in “Born To The Purple,” the third episode 
of (he show’s first season. Upon completing 
her debut outing, however, Woronov decid¬ 
ed that she could not face another session in 
the make-up chair, and her character was 
unceremoniously killed off. Shortly after, 
Susan Kcllerman was cast as Ko’Dath’s re¬ 
placement, Na'Toth, but the actress suffered 
a bout of claustrophobia during her first 
morning on the show, and wisely decided to 
drop out. 



Julie Caitlin Brown, billed as Caitlin Brown on the series, 
as Na'Toth, appearing in just live episodes first season, 
she returned to tie-up the character in BS's Iasi year. 

Faced with the prospect of finding an 
immediate replacement, BABYLON 5’s 
casting agent Mary Jo Stater turned to ac- 
tress/singer Caitlin Brown, who besides 
having appeared in such stage and screen 
productions as GRAND HOTEL, RAVEN, 
DREAM ON, WOLF, B. L. STRYKER and 
CHAINS OF GOLD, had also donned ex¬ 
tensive prosthetics as a guest star in the 
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
two-parter “Gambit” and DEEP SPACE 
NINE’S “The Passenger.” 

“They needed someone who was tall and 
could handle the prosthetics,” recalled 
Brown. “I had previously auditioned for the 
roles of Delenn and Ivanova, so they must 
have remembered me when they needed a 
new Na’Toth. 1 was paged at ten o’clock in 


the morning, got to the set at one in the 
afternoon and started shooting the next 
day.” 

From her first appearance in “The 
Parliament Of Dreams,” it was clear that 
Na'Toth was intended to be more than 
just a comic foil for Ambassador G’Kar. 
“Na'Toth had a lot of depth to her,” said 
Brown. “Sometimes when you’re a 
‘sidekick character,’ you’re kinda 
shoved off to the side for the first couple 
of seasons and then they start to develop 
you later. Well, Joe made it very clear 
that he didn’t want me to play her like 
that, but as someone who is very sure 
about what she wants and what’s she go¬ 
ing to do.” 

The actress had no trouble striking up 
a relationship with Andreas Katsulas, 
who played Na’Toth’s partner in inter¬ 
stellar politics, G’Kar. “Andreas and I 
had an instant rapport,” she enthused. 
“He was very sweet to me from the mo¬ 
ment I walked onto that set, and we 
would spend a lot of time together dis¬ 
cussing our characters’ points of view. 
The last time I saw Andreas, I hugged 
him and I told him 1 missed him. He was 
wonderful to work with.” 

Although certain scenes suggested that 
there was a romantic attraction between 
G'Kar and Na’Toth. the actress dismissed 
the idea that the Narn duo could have be¬ 
come BABYLON 5’s answer to Clark Kent 
and Lois Lane. “I think Andreas would have 
completely adored a relationship between 
G’Kar and Na’Toth, and I would have too,” 
she said. “It was a definite love/hate thing. 
But I don’t think Joe intended there to be 
any hint of romance between the two char¬ 
acters," 

Two of Brown’s most memorable mo¬ 
ments in the series came when she was re¬ 
quired to demonstrate Na’Toth *s physical 
strength and prowess. In “The Parliament 
Of Dreams,” she assaulted Ambassador 
G'Kar in an effort to win a Narn assassin's 
trust, whilst in ‘'Death walker,” she mount¬ 
ed a vicious attack on the evil war criminal 


69 









Brown, clowning on the set with Andreas Katsulas 
as G Kar. who tears his new aide is actually an 
assassin sent to kill him in ’‘Parliament of Dreams." 


Jha'Dur (Sarah Douglas). 

”1 do the vicious thing well,” the actress 
laughed, i apologized profusely to An¬ 
dreas’ stunt double before I shot the fight 
scene in ‘Parliament of Dreams.* I said to 
him. I want you to know that I think you're 
a wonderful person and 1 hope this doesn't 
get in the way of our friendship, but I’m go¬ 
ing to beat the hell out of you!' I did enjoy 
myself doing that. In fact. I got so excited 
doing it that I kicked (he camera at one 
point. It was my first week on the show, and 
I broke thousands of dollars worth of equip¬ 
ment! 

“Beating up Sarah Douglas was really 
fun. Skip [BcaudineJ. who was our assistant 
director at the time, didn't want to let me do 
that scene at first, but I managed to con¬ 
vince him that I could handle it. My son 
[Dustin] saw it afterwards and he said to 
me, ‘You fight like a gangster! You fight 
like a member of a street gang!' That was 
the highest praise—when my 13-year-old 
son liked the way I looked on film!” 

Sadly, Brown’s butt-kicking reign in the 
role of Na'Toth came to an abrupt close at 
the end of BABYLON 5’s first season. 
While the actress was reluctant to leave the 
series, she admitted that contractual diffi¬ 
culties and Na'Toth’s extensive prosthetics 
were the key factors in her departure. 

“Any lime you're doing science fiction 
and having to wear prosthetics, it takes a lot 
of discipline and strength to hit your mark, 
say your lines and do your work,” she ex¬ 
plained. “I’ve done 700 performances on 


Broadway, and as gru¬ 
elling as that could be, 
nothing was like whal 
Andreas and I had to go 
through when we were 
working 15 hours a dav 
on BABYLON 5. And 
then on top of that, your 
work isn’t really re¬ 
spected by most pro¬ 
ducers outside the sci¬ 
ence fiction genre. 

“I cried when I 
turned the part down. I 
called my mother and I 
said, ‘I don’t know 
what to do. This is one of the best-written 
female characters I’ve ever come across, 
and she’s going to have a lot to do in the 
show.’ But she told me. I don't think you 
should do it the way it’s been put to you.’ 
When I turned the role down, [BABYLON 
5’s] producers called and asked me why I 
was leaving and I said. I 'm sorrv, but I just 
couldn’t do it.’” 

After toying with the idea of assigning 
G'kar a series of short-lived diplomatic 
aides a la MURPHY BROWN, Straczynski 
decided to keep the character of Na'Toth in 
the series. Thus, Brown was replaced by 
Mary Kay Adams, who at the time was hest 
known to SF buffs for her portrayal of the 
Klingon Grilka in the STAR TREK: DEEP 
SPACE NINE episode “The House Of 
Quark." Unfortunately, while she had expe¬ 
rience of both the genre and extensive 
makeups, Adams never seemed comfortable 
as Na'Toth. and the character was subse¬ 
quently w ritten out of the series. 

“Mary Kay Adams is a wonderful ac¬ 
tress,” stated Brown. “She’s just done an¬ 
other STAR TREK [the DEEP SPACE 
NINE episode “Looking For Par’Mach In 
All The Wrong Places”). It was just very 
difficult for her to play Na’Toth because Joe 
and I had already established a definite 
characterization. She really couldn't depart 
from that too much, and the fans noticed the 
difference." 

Since leaving the 
show. Brown has starred 
in the telemovies MUR¬ 
DER LIVE and LOVERS’ 

KNOT, and was featured 
in such TV shows as 
RENEGADE, VANISH- 
ING SON, JAG and 
POINT MAN. She also 
returned to the sound- 
stages of BABYLON 5 
(minus Nam make-up 
and hilled under her re¬ 
al name, Julie Caitlin 
Brown) to play Earth 
Alliance lawyer Guine¬ 
vere Corey in “There 
All The Honor Lies." 

“It was great to be 
on the show in regular 


f 6 It would be brilliant 
to see G’Kar pregnant! 
Narn are marsupials— 
they carry their chil¬ 
dren in their pouches— 
and the males finish 
the gestation, 99 

—Actress Caitlin Brown— 


Brown, minus the prosthetics that 
weighed heavily on her decision to 
leave the series after five shows. 



clothes," she recalled. “I 
really enjoyed working 
with Bruce Boxleitner 
[who plays Captain 
Sheridan] and it was 
nice to do some comedy. 
There was talk of that 
Guinevere becoming a 
recurring character until 
Joe [StraczynskiJ decid¬ 
ed to write all the epi¬ 
sodes in season three. He 
told me. ‘I’m taking the 
show in a different direc¬ 
tion and the Earth Al¬ 
liance won't be in¬ 
volved. so it will be hard to have a lawyer in 
the show." 

Asked if there is anything she would 
have liked to see Na'Toth do before the end 
of space station saga. Brown replied, “I 
think it would have been brilliant to sec 
G Kar pregnant! Narn are marsupials— 
they carry their children in their pouches— 
and the males finish the gestation, so I 
think it would have been great to see Na’- 
Toth come back, have a love affair with 
G'Kar, and have a child. Then, when he is 
indisposed, I could take over and run 
everything. That isn't something I dis¬ 
cussed with Joe. but I would have loved to 
sec that happen." 

In the meantime. Brown is currently 
recording an album for her blues and jazz 
group. The Julie Caitlin Brown Band. The 
actress/singer is highly amused by the sug¬ 
gestion that she should record a novelty al¬ 
bum as Na’Toth. “Given that Na'Toth has a 
very dry sense of humor, that would be 
great." she laughed. “Of course, if I did de¬ 
cide to do it, Joe Straczynski would have to 
write all the songs." 

Whatever the future holds. Caitlin 
Brown is proud to have starred in BABY¬ 
LON 5 and believes that the show's grow¬ 
ing popularity stems from its gritty, reality- 
driven depiction of humanity’s future. 

“I think BABYLON 5 scares people in a 
titillating way, like a really 
cool roller-coaster,” she 
said. “It makes people think, 
‘My God, in two or three 
hundred years time, are we 
going to fix our problems or 
are they going to keep 
plaguing us?' When we look 
at our own history, we've 
been fighting each other for 
thousands of years—who’s 
to say that won’t continue? 
So I think the show makes 
people feel better in a very 
strange sense: it makes them 
feel that ‘maybe we're not 
so bad because the charac¬ 
ters in the show don't have 
it right.* BABYLON 5’s hu¬ 
manity is very appealing to 
a lot of viewers." 


70 










SEASON THREE 
“Point of No Return" 


“Wt have da net'll our lad Hide dance together, 
Mr. Morden. Now it is time for you to go 

“ wa > " —Londo 

“Why would they just disappear for a thousand 


vears 


■»** 


—Knduwi, about the Shadows 


Matters of Honor 


AAA 1/2 


II h IW. #,MH Uniitn h* J. Micliarl StaWCXjmaKL hinreted h% 
Ret in J.1 mnin. 

Marcus Cole (Jason Carter) is a Ranger who 
arrives on the station half dead to bring news 
that a Ranger training camp on Zagros VII. a 
!>ra/i world, is in danger of being attacked 
because of a Centauri blockade. Marcus asks 
Sheridan to help rescue the Rangers. Londo 
breaks off with Morden (l-.d Wasser) but then 
Morden contacts Lord Refa (William Forward) 
w ho agrees to pull Centauri forces from Zagros 
VII Dclcnn introduces Sheridan to the White 
Star, a ship of Minbari/Vorlon design that can be 
used for covert missions. During the White 
Star’s shakedown cruise, they engage a Shadow 
vessel and destroy it by collapsing a jump gate 
on it. David Kndawi ( fucker Smallwood) from 
Earth Force Intelligence wants information about 
the Shadow ships. When he returns to Earth, 
reporting that no one knows anything, we learn 
Morden has made a deal with a female Senator 
and a member of Psi Corps. 


During the shakedown cruise of the White Star, 
Sheridan engages a Shadow ship and collapses 
a jumpgate to destroy it in "Matters of Honor.” 


In addition to giving them a hand-drawn 
sketch, to help them visuali/c the While Star, 
Foundation imaging visual effects artist Ron 
Thornton recalled, "Joe Strac/ynski told us, ‘It’s 
Minbari and it’s Vorlon but it’s got a little bit of 
Earth in it as well.'" His colleague Adam “Mojo" 
Liebowil/ agreed, "If you just looked at it you 
might not say that, hut if you looked at it next to 
liarth. Vorlon and Minbari ships you could see it 
all in there.'* 

"To see Sheridan captaining a Minbari cruiser 
is just the last thing you would ever expect to sec," 
noted Joe Straczynski. "Therefore, it’s why we did 

it.” 

The death of keffer (Robert Rosier) and the 
introduction of Marcus Cole were specifically 
introduced to the saga, said Straczynski. to 
provide a different perspective. "In the sense that 
too often shows like this lend 1<> focus on Ihc 
guys on the top of the command chain, I said 
let’s see one of the guys who are a couple of 
rungs down. I el’s see the squadron pilots who 
we often see going to fighi but we don’t 
necessarily know who (hey are. It came for a 
desire U> give a somewhat different point of view 
to ihings. Someone who wasn't at a command 
level. Bui I can say also [Kefferj wasn't far 
enough out of the command chain to he as much 
of a free-floating agent of chaos that I wanted. 


Trivia: Brother Thco is named for Vincent Van 
Gogh's sibling. 


“Sort of like an interstellar gardener, plucking 
out all of the weeds sit that Ihc flowers van 
grow.” 

“Basically, yes.” 

“Well, let’s just hope that High-IQ hoys hack 
home give us all the right answers to this test. 
Otherwise we’re gonna gel hit with a 
megaton weed whacker.” 

—-Ivanova and Sheridan 

A D ay i n th l Stri fe ★* 1/2 

11 20 IW. *J4U U hilrn Uy J. MirluiH S^rmczjwtkL Dtmird 
hy Itatul J. Kagff, 

In the midst of a Dockworkcr’s Guild dispute. 
Sheridan is faced with an alien probe that arrives 
at the station, offering information about advanced 
technology if a string of questions are answered 
Sheridan and Ivanova scramble to assemble the 
answers to 75 questions. Meanwhile, Na’F'ar 
(Stephen Macht) comes to replace G’kar as 
Narn’s representative and to send him home. 
Ta’Lon the Narn (Marshall league) kidnapped 
with Sheridan in "All Alone in the Night" is his 
bodyguard who tries to convince G’kar to stay, 
londo calls in a favor with Dclcnn and assigns Vir 
as cultural attache to Minbar. 


An alien probe arrives at the station, ottering 
information about advanced technology in "A 
Day In the Strife,' as B5 pilots threaten to strike. 

For director David Eagle, real-life events 
eerily mirrored the art in this episode. When 
Sheridan and Ivanova are laced with ihe pilots 
association strike, Eagle was similarly 
confronted by a crew’s strike three days into the 
shinning. “It was an ironic kind of thing,” he 
said. “Wc were shut down lor three days. I 
started the week oil with a non-union crew and 
ended up at I he end of the week with a union 
crew, It was all the same people." And now, 
whenever Eagle shows up on the set, "they 
would rib me about whether or not they would 
slick around for my next show, ITiat became a 
running joke.” 


“We believe that the universe itself is conscious 

in a way we can never truly understand. It is 

engaged in a search for meaning so it breaks 

itself apart investing its own consciousness in 

every form of life. Wc are the universe trying to 

understand itself.” . 

—Dclcnn 


Passing Through 

Gethsemane AAA 1/2 

11/27/1995 1.10$ Wrinra b) J. M Khar I Stmcftnvli. Wrrctrd 
ht Vdjm Niniot. 

I.yta Alexander (Patricia Tallnian) returns from 
Vorlon space as Kosh’s aide. The doctor's 
examination shows she’s in better health than 
when she left. One of Ihc resident monks. Brother 
Edward (Brad Dourif). begins to experience a 
series of baffling, frightening images. Researching 

71 


“I did what I did because all life is sacred. But 
when the object of your actions does not share that 
belief, I fear I have served the present hy sacri¬ 
ficing the future.” —Ecnnicr about lamdo 


Convic tions ★** 

11/13/1995. *102 Wrillcn to J. Michael Stui mioCj IlirMlrd 
h> M ic hut I Vrjar. 

A series of explosions aboard the station has 
everyone aboard tense and on alert. Hie 
command staff frantically search for the bomber. 
Lcnnier’s caught in the middle of the terrorism 
and is injured in the act of saving Londo from the 
explosion. Another blast traps Londo and G’kar 
in a turbolift The two wounded foes pass the 
time by verbally sparring with each other amidst 
the ruins. Ivanova asks a group of monks headed 
by Brother Thco (Louis Turenne) to review 
security video footage to find the person 
responsible. The monk’s research reveals one 
figure present at the bombings: Robert J. Carlsen. 
a disgruntled drifter. Sheridan confronts Carlsen 
who holds a deadman’s switch trigger. When the 
bomb is located, it is sent inio deep space and 
away from the station where it explodes. 

For series producer John Copeland, watching 
G’Kar and Londo’s constantly evolving relationship 
unfold was a source of much pleasure. “I guess you 
could call them the ’best of enemies,”' he said. 

“The characters themselves, as they came out of 
Joe’s mind. I think are two of the best we have ever 
had in science fiction entertainment. It’s very hard 
for me to capsuli/e everything about them. Both 
Cl'kar and Umdo go through amazing changes 
through the course of the series and those changes 
brought about by the experiences they have bring 
them both closet together and at the same lime 
solidify the things which they will never he able to 
resolve between themselves. I think many viewers 
found it gratifying lo watch londo and G’Kar and 
how r they changed." 

Ambassador Kosh takes back part of his 
essence from the Vorlon-attered telepath, Lyta 
Alexander in "Passing Through Gethsemane.” 


Londo jumps into a nearby turbolift to escape an 
explosion In “Convictions,” as a bomber aboard 
the station has everyone tense and on alert. 

That led me toward bringing in someone like 
Jason.” 






























The station gets a change of commanders, a hold 
move that assured the series’continued success. 



Delenn (Mira Fur Ian) and Vorlon Ambassador Kosh attempt to warn 
Sheridan of the Shadows' threat in "In The Shadows of Z'ha’dum.*’ 


By Frank Garcia 
and Robert T. Garcia 

In novelistic terms, the radical 
move of taking Commander Jeffrey 
Sinclair “off the chessboard** and re¬ 
placing him with another one, Cap¬ 
tain John Sheridan, was quite daring. 
Fortunately, as history showed it, 
choosing Boxleitncr made for a very 
successful transition, although he 
was cast so late in the process there 
was only eight days before filming 
began. 

“I had worked with Bruce before 
so I knew what a positive influence 
he was going to be on the cast," re¬ 
called Peter Jurasik who was also in 
TRON (ldK2) with Boxleitncr. 

“lie’s a very elegant man. a very 
professional actor, lie’s almost op¬ 
timistic and enthusiastic to a fault, 
lie's really the quintessential leader 
on the set. Playing the lead role is a 
difficult thing to do on a series be¬ 
cause you naturally become the 
leader of (he cast. Bruce has such 
an easygoing way you almost don't 
even recognize it. Michael O’Hare, 
on the other hand, I felt was not ex¬ 
perienced enough and struggled 
with that role and the position that 
he had to hold. I don't think he han¬ 
dled it as nearly as (well as| Bruce 
did. Bruce was quite a relief, actu¬ 
ally. We felt like the person holding 
the reins was our leader who was now 
quite calm and sure.” 

According to series story editor Larry 
DiTillio, Michael O'Hare ’s heroic portrayal 
“was a very interesting character that was 
cast against his type. He was a good-look¬ 
ing guy, but he wasn't terrifically good 
looking. There was a lot about Sinclair that 
was unlikable. It was part of his charm as a 
character that he was not likable. He just 
had this brooding quality that really made 
you watch him all the time, and think he 
was going to blow up at any minute. Bruce 


doesn't have that quality. Bruce was a 
breath of fresh air. Bruce is much more a 
regular guy, more midwestern. Sinclair was 
more urban." 

An important early second episode, the 
Hugo award-winning "The Coming of 
Shadows'* was a turning point for both the 
Ccntauri and the Narn. It was an episode 
that especially heightened the yin-yang 
conflict between the (wo races. When Lon- 
do dreams, the images that bombard his 
brain are glimpses of the future. “Joe loved 
to play with ‘Was it real or a dream?”* not¬ 


ed Peter Jurasik. “One of his banners 
is 'Things are not what they seem.' 
Presenting Londo in that way, in 
dreams as part of a prophecy, and 
then as a narrator in ‘In the Begin¬ 
ning.’ It just continued Joe's won¬ 
derful style. He just likes to make 
things enigmatic, mysterious and 
veiled." 

When the Centauri Emperor ar¬ 
rived on B5 for a tour, G’Kar was 
angry and prepared to assassinate 
the leader. But the Emperor col¬ 
lapsed and died in Mcdlab before 
G*Kar could reach him. When word 
reached G’Kar of a mysterious and 
deadly assault on a Narn colony by 
an unknown and deadly force, and 
that Centauri warships were in the 
area at the time, he was furious. At a 
Council meeting, a crushed G’Kar 
announced that the Nam race had 
declared war on the Centauri. Peace 
was no longer possible. 

“It was a pinnacle,*' said Jurasik. “It 
was an arching episode in terms of the 
drama. People loved the turns. For a 
moment they had a high point at a 
mountaintop and felt like they were 
looking ahead and what was coming. 
People responded to that moment 
where they could see how they’d got¬ 
ten there and where they were headed. 
At that point, the audience is ahead of 
a lot of the characters." 

A favorite dramatic scene for both 
the fans and Jurasik was when G'Kar 
bought Londo a drink. The chill factor was 
that the audience and Londo knew (hat the 
Shadows were going to assault the Narn 
colony but G'Kar does not. “The audience 
gets to look at it from a perspective," agreed 
Jurasik. 

This episode is frequently cited as a fan 
favorite, as demonstrated by the Hugo 
award and director Janet Greek provides a 
very simple explanation to the series’ suc¬ 
cess. “Let’s face it—it’s brilliant,” she said. 
“It really is about the writing and the plot- 


72 










his own past, Edward realizes that he was once a 
serial killer and that he’s been “mindwiped" and 
transformed as a monk to do penance Tor his 
misdeeds. The relatives of Edward’s victims have 
“loosened” Edward's telepathic blocks in order to 
exact revenge for his crimes. But Lyta manages to 
identify the group's leader and in the end, he loo, 
is mindwiped and becomes a monk under the 
guidance of Brother ITteo (Louis Turcnnc). 

• Joe's always dealing with identity.” noted 
Patricia Tallman. “Looking at things we have now 
and putting them into the context of the future so 
it kind of pops out at us. I love how he does that 
with the scripts. That’s one of the values of 
science fiction. You lake something that we're so 
used to and you put a different context. You pul an 
alien face on a unpopular character and all of a 
sudden, you listen to the story." 

Directing the first of two episodes for the 
series. Adam Nimoy was impressed with the well- 
oiled B5 machine. “It’s a very good, solid 
production," he said. ‘‘They do a lot for very little. 
They know what they're doing. It’s very smooth 
running, there are very few kinks. It's a great crew 
to work with. The cinematographer. John FI inn, is 
awesome. And the actors are great! They have the 
best attitude, ihcy like each other.*' 


“With our basic freedom at slake, no response 
can be too extreme. There maybe some minor 
and temporary abridgments in the traditionally 
protected areas, such as speech and association, 
hut only until this crisis is over.** 

—Julie Musanle to Sheridan 

Voices of Authority ★★★1/2 

I/29/IV96* JM04 Written by Michael Ntracijmki- Directed by 
Vlenartien lUisrltlu 

Sheridan accepts Draal's (John Schuck) offer 
to use the Great Machine in searching for “the 
first Ones.” Ivanova steps into the Great 
Machine's chamber and in her mind, she floats 
through the depths of space. In the meantime, 
Sheridan is occupied with an officer from the 
Political Office, Julie Musanle (Shari Shattuck), 
who attempts to seduce the captain. At Sigma 
957, Ivanova delects a presence but she also 
finds the Shadows there and escapes. Ivanova 
intercepts a transmission between President 
Clark and someone else, discussing President 
Santiago's assassination. Elated, Sheridan sends 
the information on a data crystal to General 
Hague for public release. Taking the White Star, 
Ivanova and Marcus go to Sigma 957 and 
convince one of the First Ones to join them in 
the fight against the Shadows. Musante is forced 
to leave the station as a result of the government 
shakeup and G’Kar quizzes Garibaldi and 
Delenn about secret meetings and covert 
operations. 

This episode marks Draal's last appearance. 

He was also scheduled to appear in “War Without 
End" hut because actor John Shuck was on the 
Broadway stage playing musicals, the producers 

Political Officer Julie Musante (Shari Shattuck) 
suspects Sheridan of conspiring against Earth 
and attempts to uncover him by seduction. 


Bruce Boxlietner comes aboard the station to replace Michael O’Hara's Sinclair, with (1 to r) Jerry Doyle as 
Garibaldi, Andrea Thompson as telepath Talia Winters, Claudia Christian as Ivanova and Richard Biggs. 


ting and it's a brilliantly conceived story. 
One of the things about this scries that I re¬ 
ally like is that BABYLON 5 has not be¬ 
come a soap opera because the issues are 
often political, instead of personal. Some¬ 
times I’ve wished that there would be some 
more personal things in it on some level, 
but the balance is good because I think that 
the political intrigue stuff is so real. And it 
really makes the scries fascinating and hard 
to anticipate.” 

Being one of the very few people who 
was familiar with the contents of the 
triple-encrypted files that contained 
Straczynski’s epic saga, DiTillio began 
thinking in sweeping terms as the season 
began, and he started plotting out what 
needed to be done and how he would par¬ 
ticipate. “I knew where the five-year arc 
was going, but I didn’t know all the de¬ 
tails of how it was going to get there,” re¬ 
called DiTillio. “By the second year, 1 was 
looking at the overall picture, and what 1 
decided to do, what I talked to joe about, 
was to fill in areas he wasn’t dealing with. 
Basically, the arc was Joe’s. He was the 
one who should write that arc. He knew 


where it was going, where it was going to 
end up. To have a somebody—a freelancer 
or even myself who knew the story— 
come in and try to write arc stories, it 
wouldn’t work. 

“What I was trying to do, and what I 
strived for a lot in the first season, was 
plugging in my stuff for the arc. ‘Knives’ 
was really my first shot at (hat and ’Spider 
in the Web’ as well. I consider all of my sto¬ 
ries for the second year as arc stories. They 
were just filling in a part of the arc that Joe 
wasn’t dealing with. I was trying fill out the 
station a lot, and that’s why I did the Mutai 
story in ‘TKO.’" 

DiTillio employed a very clever tech¬ 
nique to help him get to know the actors, 
which also served as a tool to help him cre¬ 
ate stories for the characters they were por¬ 
traying. “I interviewed every actor on the 
show when they came in, to do character 
profiles for the [series] bible,” he said. “I 
asked them about their interests, their hob¬ 
bies, and what they thought their character 
could do. 1 wrote all that down and what re¬ 
sulted was a mix of the actor’s own person¬ 
al likes or dislikes.” 


73 




















could nnl resurrect the character. “We never saw 
(he Great Machine after again!" complained Larry 
DiTillio. "During the big war. one of the questions 
on people's minds, and certainly mine, was 'Well, 
what the hell about the Great Machine?' lie said. 
'Anytime you need me!" There was a couple of 
times that H5 was attacked hy huge fleets. What 
about Epsilon? Even to the end of the show, that 
whole thread just petered out. We never saw it 
again. In the end. we never found out what 
happened to Draal and Ihe Great Machine." 


A slug-tike parasite is infecting Linkers in 
Downbelow in ‘Exogene&ls." a species called the 
Vendrizi, offering a storehouse of knowledge. 


“We wen . 1 created half a million years 
ago, bred t» he living records of all those we 
have seen and touched. For all that time we 
have travelled through the galaxy in our host 
bodies. We hate seen double sunset on 
worlds so far away you have no name for 

them. —Vindri/i to Marcus and Franklin 


Exogenesis 


** 


cliche on other shows, and it ends up being 
benevolent for a reason you can't imagine to 
begin with. 1 think he has a nice way of twisting 
things around." 


“In here, Mr Garibaldi, you can not hide from 
yourself. Every thing out there has only one 
purpose. To distract us from ourselves, what is 
truly important. There are no distractions in 
here. We can learn much from silence.” 

—G’Kar to Garibuldi 

Messages from Earth **+* 


Andreas Katsutas as Narn Ambassador G'Kar 
looks on In amazement as he sees Kosh fly away 
during a drug-induced vision In "Dust To Dust." 


: 12 !■***. H07 Written In J. Michael Sirac/ymki. Ilirrcird by 
km in ( iritiin 


Investigating a iurker's death. Dr. Franklin 
discovers an alien parasite attached to the man's 
spine. Marcus discovers that his Downbelow 
contacts will no longer deal with him. Together, 
they go l<* Drown Sector where they are 
captured by the parasites'victims, I heir leader. 
Mat I hew Duflm (James Warwick J, coerces 
Franklin into treating one of them Marcus 
escapes and his friend Duncan (Aubrey Morris) 
reveals that the parasites are the Vendrizi. They 
are ancient, living history books who take 
control of those w ho have no reason It* live. 
Franklin and Marcus agree not to interfere with 
ihe Vendrizi. Duncan leaves Baby Ion 5 to see 
lor himscli the wonders the Vendrizi have 
shown him. 

II there was any mystery surrounding this 
episode, it's probably wondering why the 
Vendrizi didn't share w ith the Army of Light 
their vast storehouse of knowledge of galactic 
history and how this information could have 
helped them in their struggle against the 
Shadows from the w ar a thousand years ago. 
Producer John Copeland sheds lighi into the 
matter. "I believe lhai the Vendrizi were not 
interested in sharing any of their know ledge. As a 
plot device. I think that they would have 
weakened the mystery of discovery of just what 
was uft*oi in the galaxy.” 

Optic Nerve artist John Vulich admired 
Strac/ynski's approach to the characters. “IfThis 
was done on some other show, the aliens would 
probahly be evil. But Joe takes that, which is a 


2 I* Iwfc #10* Written h> J. Michael Sinojuld. Directed by 
Mil bar I Vrjar. 

Dr. Mary Kirkish (Nancy Stafford), boards 
the station under Ranger escort. Dr. Kirkish has 
come to warn of Earth's secret operation to 
exploit Shadow technology. Seven years ago. 
she helped unearth a Shadow vessel buried on 
Mars. Now, another ship has been found on the 
Jovian moon Ganymede and Interplanetary 
Expeditions is about to activate it. They pian to 
take it to Farih, study it and possibly use it 
against the other races Sheridan takes the 
While Star to Ganymede to destroy the ship. 
The Shadow ship destroys the Ganymede 
installation. Sheridan attacks and defeats the 
ship hy luring it into Jupiter's gravitational well 
where it’s crushed. They escape, but Clark uses 
Ihe incident as an excuse to declare martial law 
on Earth. 


A newly awakened Shadow ship breaks out of 
the cage the humans have put around It on 
Jupiter's Ganymede in "Messages From Earth." 

Confined to his prison cell. G'Kar turns to 
writing about Ihe recent Narn events to keep 
himself busy. The first pages of the Hook of 
G'Kar is written. 2 * 4 “ Y’know, what's funny is 
the Book of G'Kar is mostly an old phone 
book." chuckled Bruce Boxlcitncr. “We have a 
few aged pages in there, but the rest is made up 
of an old L.A. phone book. Dial 1-80Q- 
NARN!” 


"A darkness carried in the heart can not he 
cured h> moving the body from one place to 

another.” —Lennier to Vir 

“My blood is the same color as yours. And what 
I do, I do to protect Earth, same as you. You 
don't like how I do it, that’s your prerogative. 

—Hester to Garibaldi 


lx st to Dust_ 1/2 

2 Iff IWft, I.UM. VVnltrn h» J. Michael Sinr/incki. Ihrrclrd he 
David J. h»Kk 


When I’si Cop Besk-r (Walter Koenig) once 
again visits, a group ol Minbari lelcpaths 
protects ihe B5 command staff Irom telepathic 
infiltration. Hester agrees to an iii|cclion that 
temporarily nullifies his powers He's come to 
warn Sheridan I hat a powerful Psi Corps drug. 
“Dust," used to increase telepathic capability in 
normal humans may be m distribution aboard 
ihe station. G'Kar purchases the drug and goes 
on .1 rampage, heading straight lo Fondo's 
quarters. During his attack, he (elcpaihically 
receives a multitude ol images revealing 
Fondo's association with Mordcn. Londo‘s 
dream ol his death, the Shadows' arrival on 
C'cntauri Prime and other images. In his drug- 
induced delusions. G'Kar witnesses his father's 
death, lied up to a tree. Convicted in court for 
his attack against Londo, G'Kar is sentenced to 
Ml days in jail 


Working wilh G'Kar and Londo. said David 
Eagle, was very special. "Their chemistry is 
unsurpassed with any other two individuals I’ve 
had experience w ith.” he said. “There was an 
incident that exemplified the way Andreas is as a 
professional actor. We were finished w ith his 
scenes and yel he needed to be off-camera to read 
hts lines for Peter. I said. 'Andreas, we have to 
change the lights here, do you wanl to go and gel 
out of makeup and costume and gel more 
comfortable?' He said, ’Are you kidding? No. I 
am staying exactly in character for Peter.’ He 
would endure the uncomfortableness for his 
fellow actor even though he really didn't have to. 
1'hal says something about Andreas and his 
professionalism. 

"I didn't have the opportunity to offer I hat to 
Peter, |hul| I know he would have done (he same 
thing. They were just like that off and on camera. 
The chemistry was perfect.” 


Majel Barrett as Lady Morelia In "Point of No 
Return," a guest star shot for the widow of STAR 
TREK creator, the late Gene Roddenberry. 


"There is alway s choice. We say then* is no 
choice only to comfort ourselves w ith Ihe 
decision we have already made. If you 
understand that, there's hope. If not...” 

—laidy Morelia to laindo 

Point of No Return **** 

JWttW. UW Written by J. Midutri StrartynU. Merited by 

Jim Juhmliin 

Clark consolidates power by dissolving 
FarthGov's Senate. FarthForce officers opposing 
Clark take action under General Hague's 
Command. Clark places the Night watch in charge 
oT off-world security. A veiled clue from General 
Smits (Lewis Arquette) gives Sheridan the 
solution lo this problem. Sheridan accepts 
G'Kar s offer to provide a Narn security force. 
Zack seemingly warns the Nightwateh of the 
force’s arrival, but it's a trap. Since the 
Nightwateh broke the chain of command, hy 













In one example of 
the benefit that came out 
of these interview ses¬ 
sions, was that actor Jer¬ 
ry Doyle loved to cook 
in the kitchen. The re¬ 
sulting scenes in “A 
Distant Star,” showed 
Security Chief Garibaldi 
going underground to 
find the rare ingredients 
for his favorite dish, 

Bagna C'auda, despite 
orders from Dr. Franklin 
to the entire command 
staff to engage in a diet 
plan. 

“Stephen Furst said 
he was a huge opera fan 
and that he would love 
to do opera,*' recalled 
DiTtllio. "It stuck in my 
head and I kept looking 
looking for a place to 
have Londo and Vir sing 
Centauri opera. I never 
had a story to fit it in un¬ 
til I needed a first scene 
in ‘Knives’ before Ursa 
jumps on Londo. I said, 

Tm going to have these 
characters sing opera. 

This is going to be fun¬ 
ny* it’s going to be won¬ 
derful and charming.' 

Stephen loved it be¬ 
cause it was going to be 
opera. But Peter, well, 

Peter can't really sing! 

It was a real stretch for 
him. 

"The one good tiling about Peter is that 
he loves to have to stretch a bit. And I think 
he does a very credible job. he sang as Lon- 
do might sing it. Chris Frankc wrote the 
music, and I wrote the words, in Centauri." 

In another example that came out of in¬ 
terview' sessions that resulted in story ma¬ 
terial. actor Richard Biggs was a "military 
brat." Mis father, a colonel, served during 
the Vietnam war and became the inspira¬ 
tion for the acclaimed episode, “GRO- 
POS,” where actor Paul Winfield came 
aboard the station as Franklin's father who 
was a General. “Much of the dialogue of 
Franklin speaking about his father, is all 
Richard speaking about his father/' said 
DiTillio. “It's right out of his mouth. It’s 
obviously tweaked to be dramatic. Even 
the names of the sisters are Richard Bigg’s 
sisters. They weren’t all that thrilled to be 
mentioned on BABYLON 5. It gave 
Richard a chance to vent a very personal 
thing in his acting. And he did it very, very 
well. It built up Franklin as a character. It 
certainly built up his father as a character. 
It had lot of resonance lor Rick and I 
thought it worked pretty nicely." 

Shocking surprises were revealed in 


“Divided Loyalties'* 
when B5*s first telcpath. 
Lyta Alexander (Patricia 
Tallman), suddenly re¬ 
appeared. “One of you 
is a traitor and I can 
prove it!" she shouted at 
Garibaldi. Lyta ex¬ 
plained to the command 
staff that Psi Corps had 
planted a hidden per¬ 
sonality in someone 
aboard the B> in order 
to learn of the station's 
secrets. The person car- 
rying the “false" per¬ 
sonality would be un¬ 
aware of the program 
they were carrying, and 

L.vta has the ability to 

# ■* 

unlock that personality 
with a telepathic pass¬ 
word. 

This episode came out 
of a desire by Andrea 
Thompson to leave the 
show. She didn't feel 
she was doing enough. 
After the series, Thomp¬ 
son made several ap¬ 
pearances on JAG and 
earned a starring role on 
NYPD BLUE. It gave 
Joe Strac/.vnski an op¬ 
portunity to retrieve the 
original telcpath he had 
initially created and 
seen in "The Gathering" 
pilot. 

Because of contractu¬ 
al difficulties, Tallman was unable to appear 
on the series and that's how Thompson was 
cast. Talia was the contingency “trapdoor" 
character for Lyta. And now that she wanted 
out, the original character resurfaced like a 
Jack-in-the-box. 

“I was the last person to he negotiated 
with out of the regular cast," noted Tallman. 
“They offered me about one-fifth of w hat I 
expected. I expected something more fair. 
What they offered me was something clear¬ 
ly meant as an insult. It didn't come from 
Joe. I don’t know who is exactly responsi¬ 
ble for that. It clearly meant, *We don't 

want vou on this show!’ So for whatever 

* 

reason or whomever. I turned it down be¬ 
cause I couldn't work for that. I was making 
more money as a stuntwoman. I wasn’t 
about to become a pauper just to be on a 
syndicated SF-TV show that may or may 
not go anywhere. It was very hurtful and an 
insult. I decided not to go there. 

“1 was happy to go back and do 'Divided 
Loyalties/ they were paying me fairly/’ 
said Patricia Tallman. “1 thought. *It gives 
me a chance to get back into the shoes of 
Lyta’ who was a fascinating character to 
me. But. I didn’t expect it to go anywhere!" 

Most memorable lor Tallman in filming 


££ Joe loves to play with 
‘Was it real or a dream?* 
One of his banners is 
Things are not always 
as they seem.’ He likes 
to make things enig¬ 
matic, mysterious. 9 9 

—Actor Peter Jurasik— 



Kosh calls in Inquisitor Mr. Sebastian 
(Wayne Alexander) to interrogate Delenn 
in year two's "Comes the Inquisitor.'' 


following orders from a civilian authority. 
Sheridan could legally arrest them. londo 
approaches Emperor I urban s widow, the 
prophetess Lady Morelia (Majel Barrett 
Koddenherryl to confirm his unsettling prophetic 
dreams. He learns he has three remaining chances 
to avoid his late and that both he and Vir will 
become Emperor. 

"Working with Majel was a really wonderful 
experience.*' noted Peter Jurasik. "It was 
interesting to watch this woman hurdened by so 
much baggage, the Koddenberry name. She is like 
a fiTst lady or a queen in a sense. Hut when she 
finally arrived at the set. she needed to take off all 
of that armor and awe and encounter me directly 
as an actor. I loved it. I have fond memories of 
that work." 

Creator, screenwriter and executive producer 
Joe Slrac/ynski, only "gives you enough basic 
information so you don't cross the line, but 
those are tough to do," recalled director Jim 
Johnson. 


"ltreak the Council, and come with me. Our 

time of isolation is over. We move now. together. 

or not al all.” _ „ 

—Delenn to the Cray 1 ouncil 


“Only one human captain has ever survived 
battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. 
You are in front of me. If you value your lives, 
be somewhere else.” 

—Delenn 


Severed D reams ***★ 

44 IWft. #310 Writer* h) 1, Miriiatl Stncnn^td, llirrclrt! by 
Mu hjrl Vcjlir* 

General Hague dies aboard lhe Alexander 
during a battle. His ship, now commanded by 
Major Ed Ryan (Bruce McGill), seeks refuge at 
H5. Sheridan cuts contact with Earth. Drakhen 
(James Park), a fugitive Ranger, tells Delenn 
that the Shadows are urging allies to attack 
their neighbors. Delenn learns that The Gray 
Council have declared a strict policy of 
isolationism. Delenn forces a meeting accusing 
the Council of betraying Valen's trust by 
ignoring his prophecies. The Religious and 
Worker castes follow Delenn but the Warriors 
persist. Capt. Sandra Hiroshi (Kim Miyori) of 
I he Churchill says EarihForce is coming to 
seize Babylon 5 and arrest the command staff. 
Clark's bombing of Mars triggers the secession 
of EA colonies at Proxima 3 and Orion 7 
Sheridan supports them by declaring Babylon 5 
as an independent stale until Clark is removed 
from office. Sheridan's forces narrowly defeat 
the first wave of the Earth Force fleet. EA 
reinforcements arrive and just as Sheridan is 
about to surrender. Delenn arrives with a fleet 
of Minbari ships forcing the EA ships to 
withdraw. 

“It was the most special effects intensive 


Ivanova's ship tumbles toward an EarthForce 
cruiser as Babylon 5 declares itsell independent 
and finds it sett under attack in “Severed Dreams." 



75 









episode we've done In dale and I think probably 
ihe niosi anyone has ever done." said Straezynski. 
"When the script first came out George Johnsen. 
our eo produccr. called me up and said, ‘This is 
the best show wc’rc ever goinp to deliver. Are you 
nuts?!' I said, I know we can do it and we ll just 
work it out.’ It came down that we delivered the 
episode two hours before it had to go through the 
[satellite |." 


“I know that Dclenn is fated for another, and I 
have accepted that, in my heart. Itut I have 
vowed In stay at her side through all things for 
as long as I live. —l.cnnier In Marcus 

Ceremonies of 

Light and Dark ***1/2 

4 11 I'm *311 Wnltrti h> J Mu hart strat/viola. Dirrrfrd hv 
John C. Minn. III. 

Dclenn asks the command stall' to join in the 
Natak'C'ha. a rebirth ceremony where they give up 
something valued. Night watch saboteurs led by 
Hoggs (Don Stroud j and Sniper (Paul Perri), a 
man with a pathological hatred of Minhari, kidnap 
Dclenn and Ix-nann (Kim Strauss), the commander 
of the Minhari Heel shielding the station. If they 
can force the Minhari to leave. EarthFurcc can 
take over Ihe station. Marcus discovers where the 
hostages are being held During the rescue, a knife 
throw n at Sheridan injures Dclenn instead. As 
Dclenn recovers in Medlab, the ceremony is 
completed, each person offering a secret and their 
Earth Alliance uniforms. Londo meets w ith Ford 
Kcfa urging him to break his pact with Mordcn 
and tend to the hmpire's defenses. When Kcfa 
refuses, Londo doses him with a two-component 
poison promising he'll be safe from part two if he 
co-operates. 

With this episode, new black/gray costumes 
are introduced lo signify that Babylon 5 is 
independent, no longer tied lo Earth Force. “I 
thought the new wardrobe was very cool,” said 
John Copeland. “It gave a grittier feel to our cast. I 
was involved, hut Ann Hruiee-Aling. our 
wardrobe designer, really deserves most ol Ihe 
credit. Ann made just a wonderful contribution to 
the series in the evolution of the look." 



Londo informs Lord Refa that he has just been 
poisoned as he converses with him at a table in 
the bar In "Ceremonies of Light and Dark." 


“Oh. I heard a new joke. Heliahaahhh. What is 
more dangerous than a locked room full of 
angry Sams?” 

“Elch, I don’t know. Whal is more dangerous 
than a locked room full of angry Narns?" 

"One angry Narn with a key,” 

—< Vntauri Minister and Vir 

Sic Transit Vir * * * 

0(11 J Writlm ht J. Wicharl Stneonyki. EHmtrd h\ 
jr%ih HiiKriciur Imimi. 

Vir's uncle surprises him by arranging his 
maniage to a beautiful Ccntauri woman named 


her return to the series, 
was her first major 
scene with the com¬ 
mand staff in Sheridan's 
office. Lyta talked about 
what became of her af¬ 
ter the events of “The 
Gathering,” and how 
she became obsessed 
with the Vorlons, in¬ 
cluding a desire to travel 
to Vorlon space at any 
cost. ’’All I did was 
talk!” chuckled Tail- 
man. “I talked and 
talked, talked, blah, blah 
blah! ’Oh, really? What 
happened?* And then 1 
say, ‘Blah, blah, blah!' 

And Jerry goes, ‘HMM! 

I can't believe that!* 

And Claudia would 
raise her eyebrow. 

‘Blah, blah, blah!' And 
of course, when you're 
shooting this, you need 
close ups of everybody, 
so I have to do the 
whole scene over again. 

It was a lot of words for 
me to be jumping into 
for the first time in a 
long time. I was ner¬ 
vous. I didn’t know 
anyone except Jerry 
[Doyle]. 

“Everyone was won¬ 
derful. I knew John 
FI inn, our director of 
photography. They were 
so much lun. They made me welcome right 
away. A great group with great chemistry.” 

At the end of the season, Larry DiTillio 
did not renew his B5 contract. “I didn't 
leave the show, I was asked to go,” ex¬ 
plained DiTillio, “And I said, ‘Okay!* I 
cleaned out my desk and left, and found an¬ 
other show. Obviously, Joe didn’t like my 
writing. I was told Warner Bros didn't like 
my writing, so it's always best to put it on 
some faceless entity. I’m sorry they didn’t, 

but that's okav.” 

* 

Looking over the season. DiTillio said 
that he was pleased, however short the 
tenure, of having worked on the scries. “I 
loved BABYLON 5. J had a ball there. I 
have no regrets. I made a lot of friends. 

“The hour format is not really my forte. 
I’m really a great half-hour writer. The hour 
format seems too long for me. I d like to write 
cither half-hours or movies. Either really long 
or really short. The hour formal is half-way in 
between all those things. The difference be¬ 
tween Joe and me is (hat Joe likes to write 
about the captains and kings. I like to write 
about (he foot soldiers. That is really a basic 
difference between us. I love character actors. 
I don't really like the hero. I like his sidekick." 

DiTillio also remarked that he was sorry 


that Thompson wanted 
to leave the show. “I 
liked her quite a bit. 
And I do like Patricia 
Tallman, I thought she 
was terrific, she really 
played a good one. 

“I did a lot of world 
building on BABYLON 
5, especially during the 
first year, and somewhat 
in the second year. 
There were a lot of 
things that had to be 
fillcd-in; stuff that was 
on the screen, but that 
(he audience was not 
going to be aware of. 
There wasn't really 
much of a world set up 
in the bihlc, because Joe 
was playing his cards 
pretty close to his vest. I 
did quite a lot of that on 
my own. I had done a 
star map of the B5 
galaxy, but I don't know 
what happened to it. It 
went to the art depart¬ 
ment, and that’s the last 
I ever heard of it. It may 
surface now that there is 
a role-playing game. It 
showed where the Ccn¬ 
tauri, the Narn, and 
everybody were. My 
theory was that if we 
were going to fight this 
war out, we needed to 
know where every¬ 
body's position was, I'hat's the first thing 
you need to know in a war. 

“I also did a big alien guide. Not a guide 
lo the five main races, Joe was dealing with 
that, and if there was any background mate¬ 
rial on them. I've never seen it. But there is 
background material on all of the League of 
Non-aligned Worlds.” 

There was a lot of value to the show’s 
guest star roster, said DiTillio. “I think we 
gel a lot of good actors, because there is 
good writing on the show. The actors look 
at the script and say this is a cut above what 
they're usually asked to do on television. I 
think we get the good actors that way. I 
don't think there is a better way to get ac¬ 
tors like Paul Winfield unless they have a 
good script to work from. In most cases 
everybody has worked out, like David 
Warner in ‘Grail* did a good job. 

“And Turhan Bey |from ‘Coming of 
Shadows’| was a wonderful old character. 
When I had to give the emperor a name, I 
said, ‘Let’s give him Turhan's name.’ 

“We had everything an actor could 
want. We had good, solid character emo¬ 
tional relationships, and spaceships blow¬ 
ing the shit out of each other. What more 
do you want?” 


£ fil didn't leave the show 
I was asked to go. Ob¬ 
viously, Joe didn't like 
my writing. I was told 
Warner Bros didn't like 
it. I’m sorry they didn't 
but that’s okay. 55 

—Writer Larry DiTillio— 



Story editor Larry DiTillio left at the end of 
the second season when series creator 
Joe Straezynski began writing everything. 


76 























Living up to the promise that no 
one aboard B5 is what they seem 


By David Bassom 

Psi Corps commercial tclcpath Talia 
Winters certainly lived up to the promise 
that “no-one aboard Babylon 5 is what they 
appear to be.** During her two-year stay 
aboard the Earth Alliance space station, 
Talia was given an undefined "gift” involv¬ 
ing telekinetic powers by rogue telepath Ja¬ 
son Ironheart, had her mind scanned by a 
strange associate of the enigmatic Vorlon 
Ambassador Kosh, and developed a ro¬ 
mantic relationship with her one-time spar¬ 
ring partner, Commander Susan Ivanova, 
before being exposed as a unwitting Psi 
Corps spy! 

Noted Thompson, “There were a lot of 
things that came as a surprise to me, and a 
lot of things I still don't understand proper¬ 
ly. Take, for instance, my scenes with Kosh 
in ‘Deathwalker;’ they were very oblique 
and really difficult to figure out/’ 

Thompson made her debut as Talia Win¬ 
ters in BABYLON 5’s first season premiere 
“Midnight On The Firing Line.” In the 
process, she replaced Patricia Tallman, who 
had played the station's resident telepath 
Lyta Alexander in the show's feature-length 
pilot, “The Gathering.” 

“Somebody at Warner Bros 
didn't want Pat on the show—I 
really don't know the inside sto¬ 
ry—so the character of Talia 
Winters was created to take her 
place,” recalled Thompson. 

“When my agent got the call 
about the role, I really wanted 
to do it because I had always 
loved science fiction and I 
thought the show had a lot of 
potential. I also liked the idea of 
playing a vulnerable character; 

I've often auditioned for roles 
in the past and been told that 
'The producers loved you but 
they didn’t think you were vul¬ 


nerable enough!*” 

Before signing her contract, Thompson 
discussed the offer with her boyfriend and 
future-husband Jerry Doyle, who by sheer 
coincidence happened to play one of 
BABYLON 5’s leading characters, Security 
Chief Michael Garibaldi. While many cou¬ 
ples would balk at the prospect of living 
and working together, Thompson found the 
idea irresistible. “Jerry and I loved working 
together and never got tired of each other,” 
she enthused. “It was just wonderful to 
work together on BABYLON 5!’’ Sadly, the 
couple later divorced and they have a son as 
a result of their union. 

The actress cited Talia Winters as one 
of the most interesting characters she has 
ever played and particularly enjoyed 
working on episodes which challenged 
Talia’s beliefs and assumptions about the 
universe around her. "I loved doing *A 
Race Through Dark Places’ and Mind 
War,’” she said. “They both explored 
Talia’s realization that she had been be¬ 
trayed by the Psi Corps and were both ter¬ 
rific episodes, in terms of the writing and 
the featured actors. William Allan Young 
[who played Jason Ironheartf and Gianni 



Thompson played Psi Corps telepath Talia Winters, 
while married to Garibaldi's Jerry Doyle. Thompson 
left the show at the end of season two. 


Loftier [the mysterious leader of the un¬ 
derground railroad of unlicensed tele¬ 
paths) were both amazing to work with.” 

Unfortunately, Thompson’s assignment 
to BABYLON 5 was shortlived. The ac¬ 
tress gradually became dissatisfied with 
the size of her role in the scries and began 
to clash with Joe Straczynsnki and the 
show’s other producers during its second 
season. “There was a big discrepancy be¬ 
tween what was promised to me and was 
actually delivered to me in terms of screen 
time and exploration of the character,” she 
stated. “I had been promised around 13 
episodes, and only did seven. I guess that 
due to the size of the cast on the show, they 
thought they were going to use me more 
than they did. 

“As a result, I often found 
myself sitting around for two or 
three months at a time without 
working. And when I didn’t 
work, 1 wasn’t being paid! I 
tried to talk to the producers 
about it, and they basically said. 
‘Too bad’ and wouldn’t release 
me to do other work in-between 
my episodes. I then said, ‘Okay, 
sec you later.’ I certainly didn't 
leave BABYLON 5 with any 
kind of bad feelings; I made it 
clear when I left that it was 
nothing personal, just a question 
of business and that I needed to 
go and pursue new work. They 
very graciously let me go.” □ 


Thompson, Michael O’Hare and Peter Jurasik. Noted the actress of the scripts, 
“A lot came as a surprise to me, and a lot of things I still don't understand." 



77 











1 mdist\ (Carmen Thomas). Vir falls in love with 
her. Nams try to kill them, hut Vir is not the target. 

I le discovers that l.mdistvs father was an 
executioner on Narn after the war. [.indisly regards 
Nams as non-sentieni and was involved in the 
killings. Ivanova leams from the station's records 
the Nams whom Vir previously claimed to he 
helping, have apparently all been killed. In Londos 
presence. Vir admits he's been smuggling Narn 
refugees to safety by faking their death certificates 
through his position on Minhar. Londo covers up 
the incident, hut reprimands Vir by revoking his 
appointment to Minbar. Undisiy returns to C enturi 
Prime vowing to return and marry Vir 

Actor Stephen Fursl delivers one of his most 
dramatic performances for the series. It's a strong 
contrast from Fursl's reputation as a corned ie actor, 
also displayed throughout the series. "People had a 
perception that Stephen could only do comedy, and 
being so good at comedy coming out of things like 
ANIMAL HOUSE," remarked Peter Jurasik “He 
had to sort of overcome that in a show like ST. 
ELSEWHERE. By the time he got to BABYLON 
5 he was used to playing both sides of the coin. It 
was necessary, because of the nature of the role, 
thal Vir be outrageously comedic at first as we 
know, in the first season. As Londo moved over to 
the center, over to the dramatic side, that area 
needed to be balanced out. That's when Vir was 
brought in and Stephen filled that For the longest 
time he really was just doing a lot of comedy. Bui 
even though he had it within him to make the 
transition, he's done it so many times in his career, 
to the actor that you saw in ‘Sic Transit Vir.' 
Stephen built the character from the bottom up." 



Carmen Thomas as Lindisty, Vir s unabashedly 
racist Centaur! betrothed, talking about the Narn 
as it they were insects, in “Sic Transit Vir." 


“One of Mordred’s knights saw an adder 
about to strike, so he drew his sword. The 
others saw it, and the killing began. A quarter 
of a million men and womcn...dead on the 
battlefield at tamlann." 

—Arthur 

A L ate Delivery from Avalo n *** 

4-1 fc 1 996. U12 WrMtffl by J. MtHud KtranyuU. IHmtcd h* 
Michael Vejar. 

On the 15th anniversary of the liarth-Minbari 
war, a man (Michael York) arrives at Babylon 5. 
Haunted by recurring dreams of death and 
destruction, he wears chain-mail armor, brandishes 
the sword Excalibur and claims to he the lost 
Arthur. King of the Britons. His chivalry attracts 
(i'Kar’s attention and the two become friends 
Marcus is intrigued, but Franklin is concerned 
about his mental health. A DNA lest proves the 
man is David MacIntyre, a gunnery sergeant 
aboard the Prometheus, the ship that started the 
Kiri h-Minkin war. When told. Arthur becomes 
catatonic. Franklin and Marcus cure him by 
fulfilling the legend, reluming Excalibur (symbolic 
of his guilt) to the Lady of the I -ike. Delcnn 
accepts the sword and forgives him. "Arthur" 
leaves B5 to help organize the Nam resistance. 



Telepath Lyta Alexander from the 
pilot returned second season. 


By David Bassom 

If took four veurs. but 
Patricia Tallman finally 
claimed her rightful place 
as a regular member of 
BABYLON 5’s ensemble 
cast. The actress, who first 
played Psi Corps telepath 
Lyta Alexander in the 
show’s feature-length pi¬ 
lot, "The Gathering,' 1 went 
on to guest-star in three 
episodes of the weekly se¬ 
ries before being invited to 
join the cast on a more per¬ 
manent basis. 

"It was incredible to be 
a regular member of 
BABYLON 5 s cast," she 
said. ‘Tm very grateful 
for all the support I've re¬ 
ceived from the show's 
fans and I'm glad (he 
character was received so 
well. I’m also indebted to Joe [Strac/ynski, 
series creator/executive producer] for mak¬ 
ing this happen." 

BABYLON 5 is hardly Patricia Tail- 
man’s first foray into the science fiction/fan¬ 
tasy genre. She made her film debut in 1981 
with the cult fantasy movie KNIGHTRID- 
ERS and subsequently featured in the likes 
of JURASSIC PARK. EVIL DEAD 111: 
ARMY OF DARKNESS, MONKEY 
SHINES and TALES FROM THE DARK- 
SIDE. Tallman has also worked, both as an 
actress and a stuntwoman, in the three STAR 
I REK spin-off shows. THE NEXT GEN¬ 
ERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE and VOY¬ 
AGER, and can he seen in the seventh 
movie, GENERATIONS. Her big break 
came in 199(1, when she starred as zombie¬ 
zapping Barbara in George Romero's update 
of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. 

On the strength of her work in Romero's 


film, Tallman was invited 
to read for the role of 
BABYLON 5’s telepath- 
for-hire. Lyta Alexander, at 
the beginning of 1992 and 
was extremely excited bv 
the prospect of playing a 
leading role in the series. "I 
really enjoy the science fic¬ 
tion genre and always 
have," she said. "When I 
read the script for BABY¬ 
LON 5’s pilot [‘The Gath¬ 
ering'], I just thought it 
was wonderful, i hived the 
character; I liked the way 
Lyta was human but at the 
same lime is enhanced, 
thanks to her telepathic 
abilities. I really thought 
there was so much that 
could be done with her. 
And I really liked hearing 
about how Joe had a five- 
year story arc for the show, 
which nearly everyone thought was a crazy 
idea at the lime?” 

Prior to stepping foot on the Earth Al¬ 
liance space station. Tallman read numerous 
science fiction novels and studied several 
purported real-life cases to understand the 
psyche of a mind-reader. And she soon be¬ 
came convinced that extrasensory percep¬ 
tion is an existing phenomenon. “I think 
everybody’s a bit telepathic.” she stated. 
“There arc instances w here mothers call 
their children when they just know they're 
in trouble, and there’s no explanation about 
how they knew." 

“The Gathering" was shot w ithin a light 
four-week schedule during the Summer of 
1992. For Tallman, it was a fantastic experi¬ 
ence. “Everything was new and exciting, 
and there was a lot of energy on the set," 
she explained. “The cast and crew were all 
wonderful and we had a blast." 



Tallman as Alexander in B5's two hour 
TV movie pilot, “The Gathering. " 
Studio politics kept her oft the series. 


78 

















Changing of the Vorlon Guard: Tollman as Alexander and Jeffrey Wlllerth as Kosh’s replacement Ulkesh 
Narenek. filming third season's “Walkabout." as the new Vorlan Ambassador blames Lyta for Kosh's death. 


When BABYLON 5 
was picked up as a 
weekly series the fol¬ 
lowing year, Tallman 
was shocked to learn 
that she would not be re¬ 
joining the show’s cast, 
reportedly at the behest 
of Warner Bros. “Doing 
the pilot, waiting a year 
for it to be announced as 
a scries and then losing 
the series was devastat¬ 
ing," she admitted. “It’s 
a typical Hollywood 
story, and the only thing 
I can say about it is that it wasn't my choice 
to leave the show. ” 

Fortunately, Lyta Alexander’s reassign¬ 
ment was only temporary. Joe Straczynski 
always hoped that she would return to the se¬ 
ries at some point in the future and achieved 
his ambition with the second season install¬ 
ment “Divided Loyalties,” in which the 
rogue telepalh visits Babylon 5 to expose her 
successor as an unwitting Psi Corps Spy. 

“Joe always felt bad about what hap¬ 
pened and he always wanted to find a way 
to bring me back,” she explained. “Luckily, 
the storyline with Lyta and Kosh worked 
out for him; it allowed him to send her back 
to Larlh with a pretty believable explana¬ 
tion. Then, when Andrea Thompson wanted 
to leave, there was kind of a gap that I could 
fill — they needed a telepalh. So it worked 
out really well. 1 got lucky for a change!” 

The actress was both nervous and excited 
about reprising the role of Lyta Alexander, but 
is pleased to report that the cast and crew soon 
made her feel at ease. “Everyone was very, 
very kind to me and have been ever since. The 
cast were just awesome.” Following "Divided 


Loyalties," Tallman was 
featured in two third sea¬ 
son outings, “Passing 
Through Gcthsemanc" 
and "Walkabout,” which 
paved the way for her to 
become a regular mem¬ 
ber of BABYLON 5’s 
cast. 

During BABYLON 5, 
Tallman was free to pur¬ 
sue other work to occupy 
her weeks off. Conse¬ 
quently, she has contin¬ 
ued to do stunt work on 
the STAR TREK shows. 
“There’s really no comparison between 
working on STAR TREK and BABYLON 
5," she mused. "STAR I REK is on the Para¬ 
mount lot, so the atmosphere is much more 
format and the stars have big trailers and stay 
in them, w hile the rest of us have to go out 
and buy our own lunches! On BABYLON 5, 
everyone's equal. We all have the same sized 
trailers, we all hang out together and we all 
eat lunch together. It’s completely different. 

“1 also think there’s a lot more pressure on 
STAR TREK, where you have all the suits 
from Paramount hanging around all the time. 
The Warner Bros, guys didn’t visit BABY¬ 
LON 5 a lot. We’re out there on our own!" 

You don't have to be telepathic to know 
that Patricia Tallman enjoyed life as a perma¬ 
nent resident aboard BABYLON 5. "I really 
am grateful for this wonderful opportunity 
and 1 hope that 1 can use it to move away 
from stuntwork, towards acting,” she said. “I 
always dreamed of being an actress and now 
that I have my son, Julian, I don’t feel like I 
have to risk my life for my job! So if I be¬ 
come able to make a living out of my acting 
career, I'll be a very happy camper.” 


£ £ Doing a pilot and los¬ 
ing the series was dev¬ 
astating. It’s a typical 
Hollywood story, the 
only thing I can say is 
that it wasn’t my choice 
to leave the show. 3 3 


—Actress Patricia Tallman— 


For Andreas Kalsulas, having an opportunity to 
work with Michael York was a joy. “I’m a fan of 
his!" he said. “Me has such an incredible presence 
and charisma. I was sort of in awe of him so how 
do you play with someone you'd rather just sil back 
and watch at work? I had some wonderful drunk 
scenes with him Me and I arc sitting at a tabic in 
the Downhciow at a seedy bar and ‘knocking back 
a few.' I just found it was delightful to do it all. Just 
so happy to work with him " 

To achieve the surrealism conveyed in the black 
and white dream sequences throughout the episode 
when "King Arthur" walked through a corridor of 
doors, with the space battle echoes surrounding 
him. that was an idea by director Michael Vejar On 
rare occasions a director will suggest a new idea tit 
him, said Straczynski. “Mike came to me and said 
‘there's this great technique that t want to use which 
you may not have heard of. What you do is you 
shoot the episode over cranks, it should be at twice 
the regular speed, and then you pull out every third 
frame, which brings it down to the regular speed. 
But it gives it a very dream-like took.' And I said. 'I 
don't know' what you're talking about.' Me brought 
in a piece of film from something else that he did 
where he had used a similar technique in colors—it 
was black and white for this one—and he said. 

‘This is w'hat I have in mind.' Once I saw what he 
was talking about I got it. I Said, ‘Go with God: go 
and do.'And it's a great effect." 



Michael York as would-be King Arthur, regaling 
G'Kar with tales of chivalry at a round table in the 
station s bar in “A Late Delivery From Avalon." 


“You know the real reason you don't like me. 
Commander? It's the jealousy of evolution. 
Normals like you are obsolete. The future 
belongs to telepaths...and I intend to make sure 
that future happens. One way or another." 

—Hester to Ivanova 

Ship of Tears aw* 

S/2/IVM, C3I4 Wrtttni by J. Michael Straczymki. Directed by 
Michael Vejar. 

Hester tries to join Sheridan's alliance because 
the Shadows have infiltrated and threaten Psi 
Corps. He warns them of a ship full of weapons 
components being sent to the Shadows. The White 
Star intercepts the ship destroying its escort, hut 
then finds itself facing a Shadow vessel, which 
inexplicably doesn’t attack. G'Kar demands a 
place in Sheridan's War Council. The weapons turn 
out to he one hundred cryo-suspended telepaths 
with cyber-crania! implants. Carolyn (Joan 
McMurtrey j. Hester’s lover is among them and 
when she's revived, attempts to merge with the 
station's systems. Scanning her, Rcstcr discovers 
that she and the others are intended to be merged 
with Shadow ships. Garibaldi realizes that 
telepaths are a threat to the Shadows who use their 
captives to counter other telepathv G’Kar is 
accepted into the alliance as Hester returns to Earth 
to work against ihe aliens from within the Corps. 

“One thing I think is very important is that the 
first two times Bester came to the station he got 
bopped and lost," said Joe Straczynski. “My sense 


79 























Heroes are tested, villains revealed, confronting 
personal demons and enemies within and without. 



By Frank Garcia 
and Robert T Garcia 

Traditionally, the middle of a storv is 
when (he author heats up the plotting and 
starts pulling the triggers on events and 
conflicts that have been foreshadowed from 
the beginning. Heroes are tested, villains 
are revealed and by the end of the season, a 
showdown between good and evil takes 
place. Exposition, for the most part, is 
pushed aside for the action, the ongoing 
plot and character-evolving dramas. 

In this season Joe Straczynski proved 
that stability was a mvth in the B5 universe. 

w w 

Almost everyone had to wrest with their 
personal demons or were being forced to 
confront enemies from within and without 
the station. 

“At some point you hit a point of critical 
mass where the universe changes,’* quipped 
Straczynski, who invented an analogy to 
describe the radical change that he installed 
during this season. “If one day the Federa¬ 


tion sold out to the Klingon Empire and 
merged with it and suddenly the Enterprise 
became a Klingon ship and stayed that way 
most of the season, that's the magnitude 
we’re talking." 

With the opening episode, “Matters of 
Honor." a new player was introduced into 
the B5 tapestry. Marcus Cole (Jason 
Carter), a roguish dark-haired Ranger of 
British descent joined the team on Babylon 
5. Effectively, he filled the gap for other 
characters no longer with the show; Andrea 
Thompson and Robert Rusler, who was sec¬ 
ond season’s Warren Keffer, a Starfury pilot 
killed in “Fall of Night" from an encounter 
with a Shadow vessel. 

“Season three really put us in the thick 
of the thing. It's really dense!" said Andreas 
Katsulas. who played G’Kar. Unlike a few 
other actors like Michael O’Hare and Mira 
Furlan, who were privy to what was in store 
for their characters, Katsulas was much 
more comfortable with playing the moment, 
and only the moment. “When people start 


talking about what’s going to happen I run 
away. I don’t want to know it. In the first 
year if Joe had said, ‘I'm going to start you 
out as a bad guy. This G'Kar is a real 
stinker and then around the middle of sea¬ 
son two and into season three he's going to 
go through a change and become a good 
guy,' I would have started playing the end 
already in the first (season) — so it’s good 
not to know. Not to anticipate. The worst 
thing, if you’re doing King Lear, is to start 
playing tragedy in the first scene because 
where do you have to go? 

“I look forward to it much as, I suppose, 
the fans look forward to the next episode. I 
look forward to the next script because I 
don't know what’s lurking behind that door. 
It's fun." 

“Once the plot started to push forward, 
there was a lot that Joe had to do in terms of 
moving the storyline forward," said Peter 
Jurasik. For Londo, he said, “The darkness 
came over the character. It was a really fun 
thing to watch Joe isolate Londo more and 
more. Once he had given up his soul, he had 
almost no one to relate to. No one except 
Vir. He was walking on a gangplank out to 
nowhere. That caused the character to turn 
inward. And that’s why people were openly 
attracted to what's inside of Londo too. He 
became not just a character that moved 
through the story but [through) his own in¬ 
ner trip and what was going on in his 
heart.” 

But the major arc stories did not mean 
the so-called “episodic'* tales were any less 
interesting. Topically, “Passing Through 
Gethscmane’’ addressed two very different 
subjects, religion and capital punishment, 
and slammed them together into one story. 
When Brother Edward, a monk, began hal¬ 
lucinating about death and blood, he was 
horrified to discover that he was previously 
a serial killer and the “mindwipe” technolo¬ 
gy reformed him as a religious monk in or¬ 
der to do penance for his misdeeds. 

“In a way, it's certainly more construc¬ 
tive than keeping them locked up,” said Pa¬ 
tricia Tallman. referring to the tcchnologi- 


Draal (John Schuck) puts the Great Machine of Epsilon 3 at Sheridan’s disposal to search for the First Ones 
in “Voices of Authority," an intrguing plot thread never again picked up by Straczynski or the series. 















Sheridan (Bruce Boxleltner) with BS ambassadors (clockwise) Londo (Peter Jurasik), Kosh, Londo's aide, 
Vir (Stephen Furst), G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas), Minbari aide Lennier (Bill Mumy), and Mira Furlan as Oelenn. 


cul invention of “mindwiping" and it's ap¬ 
plication of reformatting the brains of serial 
killers and criminals. “We don't want to 
murder them—doing exactly what they did. 
It’s a psychological, spiritual and religious 
dilemma isn’t it?” 

How would society really deal with our 
darkest selves if we had this technology? 
"Would that be a good end result if we start 
working towards that now?” asked Tallman. 
I don’t really have an answer. It's a really 
good thing as long as you don't freeze up. 
dealing with the questions and never try to 
find an answer. It’s constantly defining our 
integrity—making decisions." 

An important meeting for Londo Mollari 
gave Peter Jurasik and everyone filming the 
show an opportunity to receive a very spe¬ 
cial guest star. Majel Barrett Roddcnberry, 
of STAR TREK fame, arrived aboard the 
station as Lady Morelia, the late Emperor 
Turhan s widow. Londo asked for the meet¬ 
ing to receive a prophetic reading from her 
to determine the ultimate course of his future. 

After accidentally touching both Londo 
and Vir, Morelia presented her vision: “You 
have a chance few others will ever have, 
Mollari,” intoned Morelia. “You still have 
three opportunities to avoid the fire that 
wails for you at the end of your journey. 
You’ve already wasted two others. You 
must save the eye that does not see. You 


must not kill the one who is already dead. 
And at the last, you must surrender yourself 
to your greatest fear, knowing that it will 
destroy you. Now, if you fail all (he others, 
that is your final chance for redemption.” 

Dark and ominous, it was necessary for 
the scries to reach its conclusion to fully un¬ 
derstand Lady Morelia’s cryptic words. 
With the entire story now completed, 
Jurasik decoded the prophecy. “One refers 
to Sheridan and one refers to G'Kar." said 
Jurasik. “‘Save the eve that cannot see.* It’s 
poetic. And it has it’s connotations built in. 
It refers to G'Kar because it's a literal eye 
that is lost. Sheridan is the second one. Lon¬ 
do has an opportunity in ‘War Without 
End,* sitting on the throne, to kill Sheridan. 
But he lets Sheridan escape. It's practically 
his last act.” The reason that the second 
prophecy refers to Sheridan is because he 
“died" in the yet-to-come events of third 
season’s finale “Z’ha’duni.” 

In the final entrail, “Surrender yourself 
to your greatest fear” is a clear reference to 
the events of fifth season’s “The Fall of 
Centauri Prime." where Londo willingly ac¬ 
cepted a parasite “Keeper” to save the plan¬ 
et from certain destruction because the 
blackmailing Drakh, who worked for the 
Shadows, had hidden fusion bombs scat¬ 
tered across the world. 

There is also another interpretation to 




Carolyn (Joan McMurtrey), Bester's lover, is 
found among the cryo-suspended telepaths who 
are serving the Shadows In “Ship of Tears." 

is the third lime he appears he either has to be 
right or he has to win. Because otherwise, we lose 
the strength of the character.” 

This is the first appearance of the War Room 
when Detenn brings G'Kar inside to join them. To 
create this set, the production disassembled the 
Casino on Stage C. 

Trivia: Bester’s f irst name is Alfred, named 
after the late, great SI- novelist w ho w rote the 
classic Tclcpath story. “The Demolished Man.” 


“You said you wanted to leach me to fight 
legends; well, you're a legend too and ]'ni not 
going awav until vou agree." 

—Shendan to Kosh 


Interludes and 
Examinations 


AAA 1/2 


SW1996* #*U5 Whtlrn by J. MkM Strav/vmkL llirrtlcd by 
JrYu«fc SahadurTmlmt 

The Shadows are attacking Ihe Brakiri and 
other Rim worlds. Sheridan and Detenn ask the 
League of Non-Aligned Worlds to join in their 
defense, but the other races are reluctant without 
assurance they can win. Sheridan then demands 
that the Vorlons make a real contribution to the 
war. lie ignores Kosh’s warnings of a heavy price. 
A Vorlon fleet amhushes Ihe Shadows stopping 
their advance, but Morden and his associates kill 
Kosh in retaliation. Before Kosh dies in the 
struggle, he enters Sheridan's mind leaving him a 
final message. Londo’s lover Adira Tyree, en route 
to H5, is poisoned by Morden w ho regains 
Mollari’s trust hy convincing him laird Refa was 
responsible. Franklin recognizes his Stim addiction 
and resigns his position. The Vorlons request 
Kosh's remains and personal property he placed in 
his transport and sent into the nearest sun. 

On the subject of killing ihe Vorlon 
ambassador Kosh. Strac/.ynski noted, “If ever 
you’ve written a novel you kind of know where 

Vorlon Ambassador Kosh (Jeffrey Willerth) is 
killed in battle with the Shadows, a plot surprise 
even to Staczynski as he scripted the episode. 


81 

























Sinclair transformed, flanked by Vorlon encounter 
suits with two Angels of Light lloating above, 
waiting to greet the Minbari a thousand years ago. 

handsome episode. Very strong. Ii just works 
really well anil we’re happy with that episode. Ii 
covers almost 1.100 years of history, so the scale 
was just huge. 

“We wanted Mike to do the two-parter because 
there was no one else we could think of who 
would be able to pull that one off the way it had to 
he done. We wanted him for that one because it 
really requires a certain touch that he has w ilh the 
characters and with the camera." 


“You an* The One who was. You are The One 
who is. You are The One who w ill be.” 

—Zathras. to Sinclair, Delcnn and Sheridan 

War Without Enimpt. h aaaa 

$ 11 im. #*l17 Uriltrn bv J* Mfctuici ^rvivnUii Dinclcd bjr 
Mu hjrl Vrjir. 

Sheridan is thrown into a cell where he finds 
Delenn. his luture wife. Emperor Mollari has 
sentenced them to death for failing to protect 
t entauri Prime. She tells Sheridan that their son 
David has escaped. Sheridan says he has been 
projected into this body from the past. Delenn 
warns him not to go to Z'ha’dum. The drunken 
Emperor arranges their escape, lie reveals (hat his 
actions are controlled by the Keeper, an alien 
parasite. Before the alcohol-disabled Keeper 
wakes, I .omlo gets G'Kar to choke him. and they 
strangle each other to death. Ivanova lakes a hull 
breach to get B4 s skeleton crew to evacuate. 
Station commander Major Krani/ (Kent 
Hroadhurst ) accidentally moves H4 four years into 
the future. Sinclair, while he’s attaching a locator 
beacon, is caught outside and is aged by his 
second exposure to the time field. Zathras is 
captured hv the Sinclair and Garibaldi of two 
years ago. Sheridan, still unstuck-in-time, 
materializes on B4 where Zathras manages to pass 
a time stabilizer to him. Sinclair and Zathras 
remain aboard H4 as it goes back l.tKH) years. The 
others aboard the While Star, return through the 
rift to the present. Using the Triliuminarv device. 
Sinclair transforms into the Minbari leader Yalen 
and accompanied by two Vbrlons, brings B4 to the 
Minbari to take command of the war. 

For this episode, costume designer Anne 
Bruice-Aling was starlled to discover that she had 
to recreate certain costumes that were previously 
used in the first season’s “Babylon Squared." She 
was alarmed because these costumes were no 
longer on hand “We had to puli out of our little 
bag of tricks (to recreate! two things that we had 
done as sort of throw-away kind of things," she 
said. “One of them was a spacesuit that we 
actually had rented. Whit knows where it was. hut 
it w asn ’t where we returned it, so we had to have 
two built! Delenn has to wear the spacesuit tint. 

“We had no idea that was coming back! And 
then there was Zathras, which appeared in that 
same episode who was a funky kind of Hobbity 
character. 

“With a character like Zathras you had about 
IK different pieces of the bitdy. When I found out 
that that character was coming back. I went. ‘Oh 


my God!' Because in the episode you got close 
enough to see the detail and a lot of it was woven. 
One of it was a woven Guatemalan kind of scarf 
that was pieced with something else. We had to go 
out and buy fabrics, paint and dye them to 
replicate this. It took weeks. My dyer/painter 
worked with Polaroids. We had enough close shots 
on him to match |thc recreation with the original 
costume|. We’d look at the footage, and go. 

Okay, no. that doesn't go there, that goes there, 
this goes there.’ Once (actor Tim Choate] put his 
costume on and we went through the fitting he'd 
go, ‘Oh. yeah, now I remember. Okay, this is how 
I walked, huh?’ It s like the costume had a hump 
on it and these raccoon tails and all kinds of 
different Yak hair and stuff on it. That was a 
moment for that season that I remembered as 
being the most hairy!” 


“Despite their strength the Vorlnns are delicate 
people. T hey do not react well to change, and 
they are not very forgiving of mistakes. It’s 
been a long time since one of them died, they 
are taking it pretty hard.” _j 


Walkabout 


AAA 


M M i.MH Wrillrn by \tu tMrl Mnaynnki. Dtrnlrd 
by Koio ( rrmiti. 

Ulkcsh Narcnek. Kosh's replacement, arrives 
and insists on being called “Kosh.” He blames 
Lyta Alexander, who was away at the time, for 
Kosh's death. Sheridan suggests they test 
Garibaldi’s theory that Lyta can disable a Shadow 
ship. Backed by three Minbari tclepaths on a 
Minbari cruiser, the White Star engages a Shadow 
vessel and proves that Lyta can telcpathically 
cripple it. During the battle, she learns the 
Shadows killed Kosh. Drained of energy and with 
jump engines offline, the White Star is 
defenseless as more Shadows arrive. The Minbari 
leiepalhs can hold three of the four Shadow 
vessels off. hut only the arrival of a Narn cruiser 
Ja’dok and League ships saves them. Lyta 
suspects that pari of Kosh may be in Sheridan. 
Facing his Slims addiction. Franklin begins a 
“walkabout” through the station and meets the 
beautiful, hut terminally ill. t'ailyn (Erica 
trim pc I) a nightclub singer with whom he spends 
the night. 


The White Star reconnorters with a Minbari 
Cruiser in “Walkabout," testing Lyta Alexander s 
telepathic ability to disable a Shadow ship. 

In a rare titles mistake. Patricia Tallin.ins first 
name was misspelled in this episode which 
starlled the actress, "I was devastated!" said 
Tallman. I couldn’t believe it. That’s just 
indicative of some of the things going on! 

“I was really mostly impressed with Kick 
Biggs’ performance. I thought he did an incredible 
job in that episode I love Dr. Franklin and the 
things he was doing. He’s just amazing. 

“For Lyta, it was more of the same, it was 
giving me something so I could be more effective, 
which was terrific. Thai’s my only frustration with 
Lyta, she’s not more pro-active.” 


you want to go and what the high points are lhat 
you want to hit, hut you have to he open to 
changes. ’ITiesc characters often will surprise you. 
I was writing 'Interludes and Examinations,' 
which look a completely different turn than I had 
expected going in. While writing it one of the 
characters said. ‘You’re missing a bet.' I said. 
‘What do you mean. I’m missing a het?’ I have 
these conversations with my characters 
sometimes, they’re very real to me. And he said, 
‘Follow me.' So, okay, ‘You go. I'll follow.'And I 
followed the story and I kept writing it and I said. 
‘I think I know where you're going with this.’ Ik- 
said. Keep going.’ And I did and it was a major, 
major event which I hadn’t planned anywhere in 
the Bible, but when it happened made absolute, 
HMr; clear sense.’* 

Reflecting on this pivotal moment, of Kosh’s 
deaih, actor Jeffrey Willerth remarked. “I was 
pretty pleased that I had a chance to play the 
character I knew lhat character would go down in 
B5 history, that he would always have that 
popularity with the fans." 


“All my life. I’ve had doubts about who I am. 
where I belonged. Now, I’m like the amiw that 
springs from the bow. No hesitations, no 
doubts. The path is clear." _Sinclair 


War Without End <ht. ii 


AAA 


5 I #JI(r Writlrn by J. Michael Si rat/>n ski, Elirrclrd by 

Michael Vrj*r 

Six years ago before it became operational, 
Babylon 4 vanished from Sector 14. It returned 
briefly two years ago. (see "Babylon Squared"} 
Sinclair, now Entil ‘/.ah. leader of the Rangers, 
and Delenn each receive a mysterious thousand- 
year old letter. Sinclair joins B5*$ command staff 
and Delenn aboard the White Star. Delenn shows 
two recordings of the last Shadow War. The 
turning point of the war a thousand years ago was 
Babylon 4 s sudden appearance. It replaced the 
destroyed Minbari star base. The second recording 
shows the White Star stopping a Shadow allies* 
fusion bomb attack on Babylon 4 prior to its 
disappearance. The White Star must go back six 
years. Dual's helper Zathras (Tim Choate) joins 
them, and using the Great Machine's energies, a 
temporal rill is opened for the ship. Sheridan's 
lime stabilizer is damaged, throwing him 17 years 
into the luture. He finds a devastated Ccntauri 
Prime where Emperor Mollari tells him that he 
defeated the Shadows, but not their servants. The 
('entauri have suffered for Sheridan's victory, so 
Londo orders his execution Hack at B4. the others 
board it and prepare for its trip through time. 

“Product ion-wise it was terrific.” said Joe 
Strac/ynski “Where ‘Severed Dreams’ had our 
most extensive CGI requirements, this one had our 
most extensive production on-set requirements. 

Set changes, physical effects, practical effects, 
different locations, all that kind of stuff. It was 
hideously difficult in lhat respect. It’s a very 


Ivanova, bleeding and calling for help because 
Babylon S is being destroyed in a flash-forward 
SOS from the future she receives from herself. 


82 


















Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) with wife Anna (Melissa Gilbert), 
Boxleitner’s real-life spouse, in season ender “Z'ha'dum." 


££ They were in need of 
a little media attention. I 
think they thought that 
having Bruce's wife 
come and play his wife 
would be a great way 
to get some ratings. 55 

—Actress Melissa Gilbert — 


the second cntrail. If written out as, 

"Save the I that docs not see'’ is not 
just G’Kar who had his left eye 
plucked from him by Emperor 
C'artagia in the fourth season. It can 
also be construed that the “I" refers 
to Londo. The ambassador was 
blinded by darkness, hence. Londo 
must save himself. “That’s a great one!" 
agreed Jurasik. “I’m certainly bowed to any 
interpretation. I love that capital ‘I.' ‘Save 
the “I" that cannot see.’That applies won¬ 
derfully to Londo." 

Referring to fellow cast and crewmem¬ 
bers working on the series, Jurasik ex¬ 
plained that even they were mystified by 
the show 's plots and character beats. 
“We’ve all battered around at lunch about 
w here JMS meant the story to go, what he 
had in mind. Me would sit enigmatically 
down at the end of the lunch tabic and 
smile, as we chatted about it. Only he 
knew!" 

In a pivotal story that propelled the 
BABYLON 5 universe into a season and a 
half long story arc. Joe Straczynski did 
something that STAR TREK would never 
have done. If this were a traditional, typical 
Hollywood space SF* series, with producers 
who were not JMS and John Copeland, 
quite likely we would not have seen this 
episode. In the Hugo-awurd winning “Sev¬ 
ered Dreams.** Straczynski altered the fab¬ 
ric of the series’ premise. 

When LarthLorcc tried an assault against 
Babylon 5, Sheridan polled his staff, "Do 
we fight or surrender?" After an unanimous 
agreement to take a stand, the station was 
besieged by three (’lark-loyal EA battle¬ 
cruisers w ith orders to take command of 
B5. Sheridan declared that B5 was seceding 
from the Earth Alliance and would become 
independent. 

Bruce Boxleitner felt strongly that only 
Sheridan could have fought this fight and 
not Sinclair. “There was no war at the time 
Sinclair was on B5," he said. "That’s why 
he couldn’t really have led the same fight as 
Sheridan. Sheridan is a soldier. Sinclair is 
more in the spiritual aspect of the battle, be¬ 
hind-the-scenes, much more in the great 
moral conflict. Sheridan doesn’t have a lot 
of time for that. He knows the basics of the 


right and the wrong. Joe [Straczynski] just 
felt that Sheridan was more necessary in 
dynamics in the Shadow War and the Earth 
conflict. He needed a character that would 
carry that." 

Director David Eagle recalled reading 
the “Severed” script. “It was the first time 
I'd ever read a script and said to myself, 
‘How are we going to do this?’ Then I'd 
turn the page and read and say, ‘Oh, my 
goodness, how are we going to do this?’ 
That was the first time Ed ever done that. 
That was how big that show was. The battle 
scenes were even bigger in the original 
script. It was beyond a television budget in 
the original description. It had to be scaled 
down somewhat. We had. like. 17-20 stunt¬ 
men." 

It was during the filming of this show in 
which Eagle was confronted with his worst 
nightmare: He got sick while working with 
a stomach flu. “Directing is a grueling ex¬ 
perience and you have to have 100% con¬ 
centration. People ask you hundreds of 
questions a day and you have to intelligent¬ 
ly answer each of them. There was a ques¬ 
tion as to whether or not I was even going 
to come in the next day. But 1 kept plodding 
through and I assured them 1 would be in. 
Everyone just came up with ideas and 
pitched in. It was a great show and I’m very 
proud of it." 

In “Ship of Tears" Sheridan unexpected¬ 
ly received a new ally against the darkness: 
Psi Cop Alfred Bester. With this episode, it 
was revealed that Bester had a love in his 
life. “That’s what makes the writing so in¬ 
teresting!" noted Walter Koenig. "They’re 
so dimensional. Joe doesn’t w rite cardboard 
cut-outs, lie doesn’t write black and white 
characters. Fie writes characters w ith nu¬ 
ance and subtlety. Wc are not all one thing. 
There’s nobody who is wholly virtuous. Or 
consummately evil. Everyone from |serial 
killer| Jeffrey Dahmer on up. has some con- 



“I’m in awe. I .citnicr. t he way you can lake a 
straightforward, logical proposition and turn it 
inside-out mi that in the end it says.,.what you 
want it to say instead of w hat it actually 
means." 


—Marcus 


Grey 17 is Missing_** 

tn 07 l<m *.m WHIt™ l>> J. Mir had Streczjwkf. OirrrtnJ 
h> John i . Minn. III. 

On Minbar. Rathe tin (Tunc Winters) appoints 
Dclenn EntiT/ah. but her commission is opposed 
by Alit Neroon (John Vickery), because he 
believes she is becoming ti>o powerful He is 
determined to stop her, killing her if necessary, at 
the inslallation ceremony on Hahylon 5. Marcus 
challenges Neroon lit denn-s ha (mortal combat) 
using Minhari f ighting pikes, Neroon is about to 
finish Marcus, hut relents realizing I hat if a human 
is willing to die for a Minhari. Delenn's cause may 
be just. He interrupts her inauguration, swearing 
allegiance to her. (iarihaldi discovers a lost Grey 
Sector level where he is captured by a religious 
cull controlled by a fanatic, Jcrimiah (Robert 
Englund). They believe that all life is part of a 
universal whole and are awaiting death by a 
perfect predator, the 7-arg. w hich will consume 
them (iarihaldi stuns, then kills the creature while 
Jcrimiah's faith fails when laced w ith the prospect 
of his own death. 

A highlight of litis episode is a fierce battle 
with Minhari fighting sticks between Marcus and 
Neroon. According to John Copeland, stunt 
coordinator Kerry Rossall had the task of carefully 
working out the choreography between the actors 
and their stunt double counterparts. “Jason Carter 
and John Vickery are extremely accomplished 
theatre actors and both have extensive fight 
background on stage. We fell that we would get a 
better looking light using the two actors as much 
as possible. There were also stunt doubles, hut 
most of what you see in the episode are the two 
actors. Joe |Straczynski| wanted a very brutal, 
realistic fighi 

"John Flinn was shooting with a hand held 
camera and having Jason charging right into the 
lens. Well. Jason misjudged a swing of the staff 
and nailed John Minn right in the family jewels. 
However, I can report that John did not drop the 
camera,” 



Foundation Imaging CGI matte shot of the interior 
of Babylon 5 from “Grey 17 Is Missing," as the 
station hosts Delenn's installation as Entil'zah. 


“ The enemy is fear. The enemy is ignorance. 
The enemy is the one who says we must hale 
that which is different. Because, in the end, that 
same hate will turn on you and destroy you.” 

—Reverend Will Dexter’s sermon 

And the Rock Cried Out. 

No Hiding Place _ i n 

10 141 Wfr. #320 W uni ii In J- Mktt*d Slracrmiki IWmird 
In lilt id J. 

Visiting Ccntauri Minister Virini (Francois 


83 





















(iiriKhiy). h;is hccn instructed by limperor 
Carlagia to end the feud between lord Kefa 
(William Forward) and Fomin. Guido. tired of 
Re fa‘s machinations in the Royal Court, plans his 
rival's demise. He uses Vir to lure G'Kar into a 
trap. Kefa kidnaps Vir and uses a lelepalh to 
extract the scheme’s details. He goes to the Narn 
homework! to get credit Tor G’Kar’s capture, but 
instead finds himself trapped. Brother Theo (Louis 
Turenne) introduces Sheridan to a pair of his 
colleagues. Baptist Minister Rev. Will Dexter (Mel 
Winkler) and Rabbi Leo Meyers (E-rik Avari) who 
are couriers for the resistance against Clark. 
Sheridan and Delenn go to a secret location where 
she reveals the newly built Ranger White Star 
fleet. 

Director David haglc recalled that actor 
William Forward was not too pleased upon 
learning that his character was being killed in this 
episode. *1 actually asked him about that," said 
haglc. “I said. ‘When did you know about this and 
what did you think w hen you read it?'And he 
said. ‘Well, you know, I kinda had a feeling it was 
going to happen sooner or later.* Meaning, he had 
thought about it months before. He was happy that 
his character had had that many appearances on 
the show. We always had great luck with actors, 
whether they were in recurring or regular roles or 
even just day players. 

“Bill is one of those professional actors who 
conies in prepared, knows his part, his lines, and 
has a lew suggestions to make. I w ill make every 
cffori to incorporate them if they make sense And 
pulls off a great performance. 1 was sorry to see 
him go." 



Vir is kidnapped by Lord Refa and scanned 
telepath ically to learn of Londo’s plans in "And 
the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place." 


“History awaits." — Delenn 

“Hello. You must he Delenn. I'm Anna 
Sheridan. .John’s wife.” 

—Anna Sheridan to Delenn 

Shadow Dancing ***1/2 

IU :j im rl’l \\ ntlrn h, J. \| K harl StnmyuU. Dirrrlrd 
In kjcn tried nun. 

Aboard the White Star, Ivanova and Marcus 
are ordered to Sector S3 w here Sheridan expects a 
Shadow attack. They encounter a Shadow scout, 
jam its transmissions and manage to destroy it. but 
not before it disables ihe White Star. As the 
Shadow fleet arrives, the Alliance defeats the 
Shadows at a cost of two of their ships for every 
Shadow’ ship lost On Babylon 5. Franklin is 
stabbed and left to die while trying to help a lurker 
attacked by thugs. Delirious, he finally meets 
himself—a mocking alter-ego who forces him to 
confront himself. He drags himself far enough to 
seek help and recovers. In hvperspacc. the 
Shadows release a shuttle destined for Babylon 5 
and later thai night, Anna (Melissa Gilbert). 
Sheridan s late wife, arrives at his quarters while 
John is asleep. 

Said Peter Jurasik, “The big story in 


tradiction in their per¬ 
sonalities, a contradic¬ 
tion in their behavior 
that belies who they ap¬ 
pear to be. 

"Any actor who plays 
a heavy, who plays with 
some conviction, has to 
lake the approach that 
the character they're 
playing is somebody 
they can relate to. That 
his behavior is justifi¬ 
able in order In make 
the character believable. 

You cannot editorialize 
the character you're 
playing and still main¬ 
tain credibility. You 
* 

have to believe in the 
character, as I’ve come 
to believe in Besler. I 
know that he does 
things that are anti-so¬ 
cial; he's committed 
murder. And yet, in or¬ 
der to embrace this 
character, and make him 
believable, I have cho¬ 
sen to find the means to 
justify his behavior. 

There are some verv 
positive things about 
him. He's very loyal to 
his own group. He has a 
great sense of passion 
and love for the people 
he cares about. 

“Sitting back objec¬ 
tively and not being in¬ 
volved would I applaud his actions? 1 
would not. But that isn't my position. My 
position is to be that character. 1 have to 
find merit in what he does. And it's not that 
far-fetched. He comes from a different 
frame of reference. His belief is that the 
'mundanes' are wanted killers, self-destruc¬ 
tive and their purpose is to eradicate the 
tclcpaths who are different.” 

One mark of good storytelling is the au¬ 
thor’s ability to occasionally evoke surprise 
front his viewers, as Straczynski did in “In¬ 
terludes and Examinations" when Ambas¬ 
sador Kosh was killed in his quarters when 
the Shadows boldly struck and engaged in 
combat. 

For both Patricia Tallman and Jeffrey 
Willcrth. Kush's death was actually a very 
emotional moment, “It was wild!" ex¬ 
claimed Tallman. “I got very emotional. I 
didn't expect that. He was very much trying 
to be a protector of the humans and trying 
to guide humans. And to see him destroyed 
like that, just made me weep.” 

“Pat doesn't have a corner on that 
episode," replied Willcrth who crouched in 
darkness underneath the Vorlon's curtains. 
"Everyone" was emotional about the event, 
he said. “It's my favorite episode. It was in¬ 


credibly emotional for 
me. It was so well- 
scripted. It came at a 
time when the charac¬ 
ter's popularity was 
building. We were start¬ 
ing to understand that 
the Vorlons were sup¬ 
posed to be the key to 
the future. They were 
involved in some way in 
resolving the Shadow 
War that had developed. 
The humans had to have 
an alliance with the Vor¬ 
lons. They started to re¬ 
alize the importance of 
the Vorlons. And Kosh 
is suddenly killed. I was 
pretty floored! 

"I found out prior to 
reading the script. We 
were going to a farewell 
party after work for an 
assistant director who 
was my friend, and was 
the one that got me on 
the show. Doug Corey. 
Right as we were leav¬ 
ing the set. the assistant 
director told me that 
Kosh was bejng killed. I 
was devastated and had 
no idea why or how. 
Just like all the fans—I 
couldn't believe it was 
happening. It was a 
tough day for me. I was 
losing my friend, the as¬ 
sistant director and my 
character was getting killed,” 

In the season's (literal) cliffhanger, 
“Z'ha'dum," actress Melissa Gilbert, Bruce 
Boxleitncr's wife, appeared as John Sheri¬ 
dan's long, lost w ife, Anna Sheridan. Sur¬ 
prisingly. Melissa Gilbert initially didn't 
want to guest star in BABYLON 5, as she 
wasn't known for doing episodic guest star 
appearances, and didn’t want to encroach 
on her husband’s “territory,” but very 
quickly she became intrigued with the idea 
and convinced her agents. 

“They were in need of a little media at¬ 
tention," admitted Gilbert. “I think they 
thought that having Bruce's wife come and 
play his wife would be a great way to get 
some ratings, ads and interviews and so on. 
Access Hollywood and stuff, so they hired 
me.” 

The moment is important for the couple, 
as this was Gilbert’s first acting role after 
the birth of their son, Michael Garrett 
Boxleitner. 

There were also several personal ironies 
ahout the experience that audiences were 
not aware of. Veteran actor Jeff Corey, who 
also guest starred in STAR TRHK’s “The 
Cloud Minders, was once actor Leonard Ni- 
moy’s acting teacher. “Z'ha’dum" was di- 


fi fi Joe doesn’t write black 
and white characters. He 
writes them with nuance 
and subtlety. There is 
nobody who is wholly 
virtuous. Or consum¬ 
mately evil. 55 

—Actor Walter Koenig 



Michael York as an Earth Minbari war 
veteran who believes himself to be King 
Arthur in "A Late Delivery from Avalon.” 


84 

















reeled by Adam Nimoy. Leonard's 
son. That's the first irony. “Are you 
aware of the irony of me acting 
with Jeff Corey again, who was my 
private acting coach when I was a 
little girl?” smiled Gilbert. "Who 
basically, more or less, gave me the 
dramatic note that got me the role 
in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE 
PRAIRIE? He’s my mother’s act¬ 
ing teacher." 

To top it off, Adam and Melissa 
both grew up in grade school to¬ 
gether. “1 loved working with 
Adam,” said Gilbert. "We had a 
blast! We had a really nice time to- 






Filming G Kar s drug-induced dream sequence in “Dust," in 
which he witnesses his lather's death, tied to a tree. Left: Art 
direction sketch by production designer John lacovelli. 


gether. He’s very insightful and clear in 
what he wants. He doesn’t shoot a lot of 
footage. He only gets what he needs and 
goes on and I like that." 

Gilbert actually had no knowledge of 
BABYLON 5 until her husband was cast in 
the series during the second season. Quick¬ 
ly. she too, became a fan. “I enjoy watching 
BABYLON 5!” said Gilbert. “I read all the 
scripts. I always knew what was going on. 
It was a lovely show. It’s not a soap opera, 
but a space opera. 

"I liked being so pivotal to the arc! Just 
coming in and doing a few little scenes and 
(yet| being a massive hitch. But also push¬ 
ing the arc forward. I was really thrilled. 

“That was meaningful because that was 
nice for me to gel back in the saddle, as an 
actress, as it were after giving birth to our 
son. It was very bizarre. I have to tell you 
even though I was his wife, I was ‘the oth¬ 
er woman.’ Playing ‘the other woman’ 
with my husband was strange. He’s in the 
bed, Dclenn’s [watching him sleep), and 
then I come back. I was the one breaking 
up their relationship. I didn’t necessarily 
like that. 

"I don’t mind being Bruce’s wife and 
just kinda hanging out and he’s married to a 
half-human/half-Minbari woman. They’re 
going to take over the universe and they 
have this whole history. They’re going to 
have a child, and they're in love, that’s fine. 
I can go and drink coffee, and have fun with 
him. but if you pul me in the middle of it— 
boy! So, it worked! But I couldn’t really 
play it because Anna really didn’t have a lot 
of emotions after being in that Shadow ves¬ 
sel for so long that it zapped all of her emo¬ 
tional being...so it was a little flat.” 


Talking at the end of the season, Andreas 
Katsulas was high on the series' progress. 
"At the wrap party, I just kept going around 
saying, ‘Three seasons!' We’ve had three 
wrap parties. I mean, it’s so incredible. 
When you look at the statistics you know 
how many potential series never get made 
into pilots, how many pilots that do get 
made ever see a first series. So there’s a 
great satisfaction in that, in having sort of 
beaten the odds and been on the air for three 
years." 

Katsulas was fascinated by the feedback 
process in which the series was created. He 
observed that it was not simply a one-way 
street whereby Straczynski would pound 
out scripts and deliver them without any ex¬ 
pectation for inspiration in the other direc¬ 
tion. On the contrary, he said, "I think what 
we put on the screen, he looks at it. and he 
goes back and he’s inspired by what he 
sees. And then that changes. Maybe when 
he started out he never dreamed that Londo 
was going to change or G’Kar was going to 
change, but suddenly he’s got two actors 
showing him these possibilities. You see, 
G’Kar is evolving. Londo is evolving, all 
the characters are going someplace and he’s 
finding it and he’s going with the changes 
and he's letting it happen. 

"When you think about it. How many 
episodes out of those 66 have Peter [ Jurasik | 
and I actually had scenes together? Not that 
many. That's what 1 find so intriguing, the 
power of these two characters when, in fact, 
Joe uses us very sparingly. And wisely so, 
because when you have a good thing you 
don't want to do too much of it. Better to 
leave the fans wailing for the next time the 
two of them confront each other." 




B5s White Star fleet engages the Shadows in 
Sector 83, gaining victory but suffering losses of 
two to one, CGI effects by Foundation Imaging. 

BABYLON 5 will swell so much that by the end 
of the third year you will forget there was a Narn- 
Ccnlauri war. because the stakes will be so much 
higher." 

Plenty of special effects abound in this 
episode. When John Copeland was asked if 
traditional, practical (miniature models) effects 
could have been feasible on B5, he shook his 
head. “The traditional method is way too time 
consuming and expensive for us. A big part of 
being able to do B5 for the budgets we had to 
work with was using computer animation and 
desktop computers for the visual effects. Sure, 
there are times when a model is the best way to 
go. but you need to have the dollars in your budget 
to deal with that." 


* 

“The future is all around us, wailing in 
moments of transition, to be born in moments 
of revelation. No one know s the shape of that 
future, or where it will lake us. We know only 
that it is alwuvs horn in pain.'** 

—G’Kar 

Z’H.VDl M 

10 2KIW6. §M2 WriUro h% J. Michael Stnr/vnskj. [Jirrrtrd 
hy Adam Nimoy. 

Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert) has been 
working with the Shadow's since the Icarus 
landed on Z'hadum. She invites John to visit 
the Shadows' homework!. Franklin's medscans 
indicates that Anna was merged with a Shadow 
ship and is their agent. Sheridan leaves Delcnn a 
farewell message. When he and Anna arrive on 
the planet, they meet w ith Morden (Fd Wasscr) 
and Justin (Jeff Corey). Meanwhile, a Shadow' 
Heel surrounds B5. A Shadow' sentient enters 
the room as Justin angrily tells Sheridan he will 
do w'hal he's told. Sheridan fires a concealed 
PPG gun, and retreats to a balcony overlooking 
a bottomless chasm. Sheridan signals the White 

Anna (Melissa Gilbert) is extinguished along with 
a Shadow city as the White Star, rigged with high- 
yield nuclear weapons, explodes in "Z’ha'dum." 


85 

























The LOST IN SPACE child star finds himself in 
what he considers the greatest SF series ever made. 


By David Bassom 

Three decades after he was immor¬ 
talized as Will Robinson, the 10 year- 
old hero of Irwin Allen's cult science 
fiction series LOST IN SPACE, Bill 
Mu my headed back into the deep 
reaches of the final frontier. As noble 
Minbari Lennier in BABYLON 5, 
Mumy won the admiration of a new 
generation of SF fans around the 
world and played a highly prominent 
role in what he considers to be the 
most ambitious SF television show 
ever made. Furthermore, as the co- 
creator of Nickelodeon's SF/comedy 
series SPACE CASES, he has estab¬ 
lished a whole new universe for genre 
aficionados to explore and hopefully 
adore. 

Mumy’s involvement with BABY¬ 
LON 5 began as a result of a telephone 
call from the show’s creator/executive 
producer, J. Michael Slraczynski. in the 
summer of 1993. “Joe remembered me 
from my earlier work and wanted to see 
me." the actor recalled. “I went in for a 
regular audition, and I read Lennier's first 
scene [from “The Parliament Of 
Dreams") where he comes to the station 
and meets Delenn [Mira Furlan). At the 
time, I thought it was just a guest shot, 
and the only thing I knew about the char¬ 
acter was that he was raised from birth in 
a temple. So I decided to play him like 
Caine in KUNG FU, with a few of my 
own Mumyisms’ thrown in, and the next 
thing I knew, my agent called to say that 
I’d been offered a five-year contract!” 

Unfortunately, Mumy began to doubt 
the wisdom of his decision to take the 
role as soon as he sat down in BABY¬ 
LON 5’s infamous makeup chair. Prior to 
starting work on the scries, (he actor had 
not seen its pilot, “The Gathering," and 
was thus blissfully ignorant of what a 
Minbari looked like, or what an ordeal it 
would be to become Lennier. “At the be¬ 
ginning. the makeup process was almost 



Mumy as Lennier with Delenn (Mira Furlan) in second 
season s “Revelations." Mumy was upset to see his 
character turn Into a coward and ended the show bitterly. 

unbearable," the actor admitted. “1 had 
never done anything like it in my life, ex¬ 
cept for an episode of LOST IN SPACE, 
where they turned Will into Dr. Smith. 
But that was just for two days, whereas 
in BABYLON 5, I had to do it every lime 
I'm in front of the camera. 

“It took three hours and 20 minutes the 
first season, and there were times when I 
wondered if I could stay with the show. It 
was difficult because, I loved playing 
Lennier and I liked being a part of the 
show, but the make-up w'as really unbe¬ 
lievable. If I was in the first shot of the 
day, I had to be up at four o’clock in the 
morning. We had two little kids and I was¬ 
n't sleeping at all! It was very, very hard, 

“Later, Greg Funk from Optic Nerve 
got my makeup down to about 90 min¬ 
utes. and he made it as comfortable as it 
possibly could be. So I’m really glad I 
stuck it out at the beginning.” 


Just as his makeup process im¬ 
proved, Mumy’s character grew im¬ 
mensely after his debut. Originally in¬ 
troduced as Ambassador Delenn’s 
meek diplomatic aide, Lennier sur¬ 
prised everyone when he displayed a 
penchant for martial arts which would 
have Steven Seagal quaking in his 
boots in the first season’s penultimate 
episode, “The Quality of Mercy " 
Then, in the third season premiere 
“Matters Of Honor," he took the helm 
of the White Star and proved himself to 
be BABYLON 5’s answer to Han Solo. 
“I loved the martial arts stuff because it 
showed that he's not a wimp—he can 
take care of business when he needs to. 
During the third season, with the Shad¬ 
ow War fully engaged so to speak, he 
had to mature a lot faster than he might 
otherwise have done. He was given 
some pretty awesome responsibilities, 
which was very exciting. 

“At the beginning of the show, he 
was this guy who had spent his whole 
life in a temple, who w-ent to Babylon 
5 and was in awe of his surroundings. 
He was just like Bambi in the headlights. 
Two years later, he’s a member of the War 
Council, helmsman of the White Star, fir¬ 
ing at Shadow vessels and kicking ass! 
He become much more mature and ag¬ 
gressive, no longer in Delenn’s shadow.” 

The third season episode "Ceremonies 
Of Light And Dark" added even more 
depth to Lennier’s character, by reveal¬ 
ing his deep, but unrequited, love for De¬ 
lenn. Although this development came as 
something of a bombshell to the show's 
fans, Mumy was not surprised, as the 
shocking revelation was actually his 
idea! “During the second season, I start¬ 
ed to feel that Lennier’s loyalty to De¬ 
lenn was developing into something 
else.” he explained. “I went to Joe and 
asked him what he thought, and he told 
me to start playing it that way. Personal¬ 
ly. I knew what [Lennier’s situation) fell 
like because I was in love with Angela 










Mumy initially regretted Ills decision to take the role 
due to Lennier's elaborate makeup process. “At the 
beginning it was almost unbearable," he said. 


Cartwright on LOST IN SPACE, and I 
just couldn’t do anything about it until 
we were older. So I used that experience 
to explore Lennier's feelings for Delenn.” 

Mumy had nothing hut praise for the 
show's cast. “I love all the people on the 
show. We got along very well. It only 
takes one actor to make life miserable for 
everyone else. I've been on shows like 
that, and it’s very unpleasant. On BABY¬ 
LON 5, we had such a large cast that it 
would seem very likely that we would be 
faced with that kind of a situation, but 
weren’t . Everyone got along very well, 
everyone's ego seemed to be in check and 
everyone understood that we’re working 
on a novel for television.” 

Looking back on BABYLON 5, Mumy 
found it hard to choose favorite episodes. 
“I like them all, I really do,” he said. “1 
loved ‘The Quality of Mercy’ for several 
reasons. First of all, June Lockhart 
[Mumy’s screen mom Maureen Robinson 
in LOST IN SPACE] was in that show. 
Secondly, Lcnnier suddenly showed us that 
he was a very formidable physical force to 
be dealt with when he had to be. And third, 
that particular scene in the casino when the 
fight broke out happened to be filmed on 
my 40th-birthday. My wife and my son 
were there and it was all very touching, 
they got to watch me be an action hero! 1 
was very happy about that.” □ 


Slur which has been loaded with two high-yield 
nuclear weapons, tl plummets to the planet. 
Sheridan climbs the balcony and (caps into the 
pit just as the White Star detonates, vaporizing 
the Shadow city. Garibaldi's Starfurv is 
absorbed into a Shadow vessel as their fleet 
withdraws. 

Melissa Gilbert's association with BABYLON 
5 did not quite end with “Z’ha'dum " Author 
Jeanne Cavelos wrote the seventh B5 novel, Dell 
Publishing’s The Shadow Within, which detailed 
the entire tale of Anna Sheridan’s perilous voyage 
on the Icarus and their fateful encounter with the 
Shadows, 

Well aware of the nove], Gilbert noted that she 
was pleased with the results of Cavelos’ w ork, “I 
thought it was great because 1 got to see what 
actually happened at Z'ha’dum, It was not far from 
what 1 had made up in my own mind! So I thought, 
*Gcc, I’m pretty great.' 1 liked it a lot. Its the only 
RS novel I’ve read. It was about me. I had to read it!" 

Trivia: "We did have a rat named 
Agamemnon." said Gilbert, “lie was three years 
old. He pavsed away, unfortunately." 

SEASON FOUR 
“No Surrender, No Retreat” 


“What are a few million lives compared to the 
glory of becoming a living god?" —Ortagia 

“It takes a rare kind of wisdom to accept 
change and redemption in another. 

—G’Kar to Zack 

The Hour of the Wolf 

II 04,l<*%.#401 Written In J. Michael Mraczvntki. Directed 
by David haitlr 


and embraced me fully. They Kith pul their arms 
around me and really wanted to gel the work done. 
Interacting with Krimmcr was just as easy as it 
could be because he just loved playing the 
character. I le just loved playing with me. He and 1 
were like two little boys playing in a sandbox. The 
same as Bill Forward as Refa. We were like two 
little boys playing with trucks Just as happy and 
completely involved. Nothing to it. 

‘in terms of the character, it was a dangerous 
and scary time. Big doings. He was trying to put 
things right. Londo had walked into a big, tong 
road into a cul-de-sac and he had to take the long 
walk out. On the way out you'd pass the Hall of 
Records" 



Londo Is given a shackled G'Kar as a gift by the 
mad Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) in 
"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?". 


Ivanova, presuming Sheridan is dead, takes 
command. Delenn demands Kosh to help them 
discover what happened to Sheridan. He refuses, 
saying Sheridan has served his purpose Lyta 
offers to help. If she can get dose to Z’ha’dum. 
she may defect Sheridan s presence, Delenn fries 
to persuade The League of Non-Aligned Worlds to 
attack the Shadow homeworld, hut they refuse. 
Delenn, Ivanova and Lcnnier take Lyta near 
Z'ha’dum and try to find Sheridan. Meanwhile. 
Londo arrives on Centauri Prime, his new posting 
as Advisor on Planetary Security. He discovers 
that Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmcr) is 
insane. Cartagia gave the Shadows a base on the 
island of Selene in exchange for their promise to 
make him a god. Shadow ships arrive in force, 
blotting out the Centauri sun. Mollari xsks Vir to 
return to Centauri Prime where they will conspire 
against Cartagia. G'Kar leaves to find Garibaldi. 


Presuming Sheridan dead, Claudia Christian as 
Ivanova (right) takes command, with Patricia 
Tollman (left) as Lyta and Mira Furlan as Delenn. 



Over the course of the next six episodes, Peter 
Jurasik worked very closely with actor Wortham 
Krimmer. who was having a hall playing an insane 
emperor "Hill Forward, who played Refa. and 
Wortham Krimmer were people who jumped in 


"If you are going to be worried cVery time the 
universe doesn't make sense, you are going to 
be worried every moment of every day for the 
rest of vour natural life." 

f» Kar 


Whatever Happened to 

Mr. Garibaldi? **** 

11/11,1 WO. #402 Wriltrn h* j. Mirlud S m a yfci Directed 

by RrMD iHittsun 

G’Kar follows Garibaldi's (rail and discovers 
that a scrap dealer sold a piece of his Slarfury on 
a remote planet. Questioning ihc trader in a bar. 
he provokes a fight. He is rescued by Marcus 
who gels the information. G*Kar is kidnapped by 
Centauri guards and is shipped to Centauri 
Prime. He is given to lamdo as a gift. When 
Londo secs G'Kar in his cell, they make a pact. 

If G’Kar will help him kilt the Emperor, Londo 
will free Narn. Sheridan awakens beneath 
Z’ha'dum. Hanging between life and death, he 
meets the universes first sentient being, Loricn 
(Wayne Alexander). To escape the limbo he's in, 
he must surrender to death. If he has anything 
worth living for, he will survive. Sheridan 
surrenders and relives his fall into the pit. 
Garibaldi is interrogated by unknown captors. 
They futilcly ask him whal he remembers about 
the ship that captured him. Garthaldi smashes 
his cell and is tranquili/ed. A man wearing a Psi 
Cop uniform enters and stares at Garibaldi. 
Delenn rallies the Rangers for a final attack on 
Z’hadum. 

Wayne Alexander, previously seen as the 
Inquisitor, returned as Loricn. one of the strangest 
aliens ever. John Copeland remembered the 
development of the character. “We saw Lorien in 
sketches first, (here was a design process that we 
went through to get the look that we wanted. Then 
there were some makeup and wardrobe tests so we 
could see whal we were going to deal with. Wayne 
had finger extensions mi it was important that he 
gol to work with those and got used to them mi 
they were believable. Whal we were going for was 
a very mysterious alien, one you were not sure 
what he was up 1o." 

Lorien is so mysterious that we don’t really 


87 






















Determining the fate of the galaxy , with character 
drama at the highest levels of government. 


By Frank Garcia 

With the opening episode, “The Hour of 
the Wolf,” BABYLON 5’s fourth season 
began a string of the most intense story arc 
episodes in the series. Two of the series’ 
major conflicts, the Shadow War and the 
problem posed by Earth President Clark, 
were spectacularly addressed. 

Throughout the year, every castmember 
had something to contribute. The station it¬ 
self was no longer the only setting in which 
to tell stories. We visited Mars, Centauri 
Prime, Narn. and glimpsed various planets 
throughout the galaxy. Over the course of 
the first six episodes, major story arcs dom¬ 
inated. Two distinct story threads were jux¬ 
taposed: the events that would determine 
the final fate of the galaxy and character 
drama at the highest levels of government 
in Centauri Prime. 

As the season opened, Sheridan came 
back from his death on Z’ha'dum with a 
strange alien named Lorien in tow and he 


rallied the League of Non-Aligned Worlds 
into a fighting fleet to end the Shadow War. 
Garibaldi mysteriously reappeared after be¬ 
ing snatched by the Shadows during the at¬ 
tack from last season’s cliffhanger and 
G'Kar was caught by his old foes and sent 
to Centauri Prime. Appointed as an advisor 
of Planetary Security to the Emperor, Lon- 
do was horrified to discover that Emperor 
Cartagia was clearly insane and dangerous, 
having allowed the Shadows to use their 
planet as a base. He realized there was only 
one course of action: plot his assassination. 

“In the Londo story you can never take 
out the element of fate," noted Peter 
Jurasik. “He couldn’t get out of the way of 
his own decisions but also there was a big¬ 
ger hand pushing him along—maybe it was 
the great maker JMS [series creator J. 
Michael Straczynskij we're talking about! 
Doomed. Cursed! That’s why German fans 
love the Faust metaphor.” 

At one juncture Cartagia mercilessly 
whipped G'Kar as Londo stood by, staring 


in distaste and horror. Does Londo feci for 
G’Kar here? “Absolutely! They become 
mirror images, in a sense,” said Jurasik. 
“They arc both patriots and warriors who 
are caught up in a time together there. They 
have the respect that two people w ho are 
bound together have for each other. There 
are a lot of things that lock them together. 
They’ve become good friends,” 

If a viewer looked a little deeper at the 
characters and situations of this story 
thread, Straczynski’s literary a.llusions be¬ 
comes apparent. Jurasik heartily agrees that 
Cartagia resembles the Roman Emperor 
Caligula, minus the sexcapades. “Yeah! Joe 
strove for and echoed a number of fascist 
regimes to build around Centauri. There 
was the Italian fascism government of Mus¬ 
solini, the Roman government and Caligu¬ 
la, the Nazi government of Germany. All of 
those are metaphors.” There was even a lit¬ 
tle bit of Brutus and Caesar in the way Lon¬ 
do plotted a stabbing of a leader. “Joe need¬ 
ed to pull at all those strings to support the 
w hole Centauri puzzle. I love to sec those 
things,” said Jurasik. 

It seemed as if the entire series was built 
toward one cataclysmic episode: “Into the 
Fire.” The Army of Light finally confronted 
their enemies: the Vorlons and the Shadows. 
It was a fiery conflagration that surprisingly 
became an ideological as well as a physical 
conflict that ended quite abruptly. Straczyn- 
ski finally revealed important philosophical 
themes he wanted to convey. Effectively, the 
Vorlons were the lords of obedience anu or¬ 
der and the Shadows were lords of chaos 
and conflict. Alter engaging in fiery battles 
with each other every thousands of years or 
so, the guardians had lost their way. 

Most fans were surprised that the abrupt 
conclusion of the Shadow Wars was made 
not by a fiery, special effects-filled battle 
but with a philosophical one. According to 
series star Bruce Boxleitner, that was the 
whole point. "That’s what Joe intended it to 
be," he said. “He knew exactly what [the 
fans] wanted and didn't give it to them! I 
can see his reason behind it. It's obvious. 


As the fourth season entered production, producers John Copeland. Douglas Netter and Joe Straczynski 
accepted the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention for third season s “Severed Dreams.** 










The Ambassadors: Andreas Katsulns as G'Kar, Peter Juraslk as Londo with aide Vir (Stephen Furst), and 
Mira Furlan as Delenn with aide Lennier (Bill Mumy), moving the show’s action onto a broader galactic stage. 


The shoot ’em up—we do that all the time. 
That’s the difference between B5 and a lot 
of other stuff. There were more ideological 
things that he wanted to press home, to 
teach the audience, to put before them to 
make them think a little more than just a lot 
of boom, bang, and special effects. I was 
shocked by it first myself, because 1 was an¬ 
ticipating the stereotypical ‘We’re going to 
come to the big final conflict.’ What was 
more significant about BABYLON 5 than 
other space operas, or other sagas like that, 
is everybody seems to do the same thing.” 

Producer John Copeland acknowledged 
that many fans felt cheated by the abrupt¬ 
ness of the conflicts’ resolution. "We 
weren’t sure we'd have a fifth season and 
Joe was determined to give all the viewers a 
resolution to the storyline,” he said. ‘‘Fans 
and viewers who have been critical of the 
termination of the Shadow War have tended 
to be looking too superficially at the overall 
storyline. Ultimately, the Shadow War 
thread was about who was really pulling the 
strings and influencing the younger races’ 
development. It turned out to be both the 
Vorlons and the Shadows—they were both 
up to no good, really. They had been left as 
shepherds and they had long since stopped 
doing that function and instead had gotten 
into an ever escalating spiral of trying to 
impose their belief of what was the best 


method of evolution—an orderly process 
[Vorlon] or chaotic through conflict [Shad¬ 
ow]. Ultimately the war could not end in a 
big galactic shoot out. It had to end with 
Sheridan being able to turn down both sides 
and with Lorien's sudden appearance on the 
side of the younger races, get the Vorlons 
and Shadows to recognize that they had 
outlived their usefulness and move beyond 
the Rim. And I think that was handled ex¬ 
tremely well. I think that most viewers lost 
that point. It is easy to do when the story 
unfolds so subtly over the course of four 
years. You have to really be paying atten¬ 
tion at that point. I also believe that more 
folks will figure this out as the seasons arc 
repeated and repeated.” 

The season had barely begun and yet the 
Shadow War was over. What else was there 
to do? Momentum naturally had to settle 
down with some attention paid to various 
characters' personal problems and agendas 
before returning to the next major story arc, 
the problem of President Clark, whose cor¬ 
rupt power was rampant on Earth. 

Two individuals who were caught up by 
(or helped propel) the machinations of the 
universe were telepath Lyta Alexander and 
Psi Cop Alfred Besler. As the season pro¬ 
gressed, Lyta expressed her disgust at her 
treatment by mundancs. “1 became increas¬ 
ingly uncomfortable with the way the corn- 


know who or where this alien is from. Subsequent 
dialogue revealed that he was indeed "the first 
one" and. said Copeland. Z’ha'dum isn’t just the 
Shadows' homeworld. but Iairien’s! “I believe 
that the implication of lumen's dialogue is that 
this was his home before the Shadows came," he 
said. “They came to Z'ha'dum. to be close to 
Lorien.” 


“We can end this. Not just Tor now, not just for 
the next thousand years, but forever!" 

—Sheridan 

Tiie Summoning **** 

II IK 1W6. #-MU Written lit J. Michael Ntrai/>n\ki. iHrrctcd 
by Jtihn VltPhmun. 

When the Vorlons refuse to join the Ranger 
attack on Z'ha'dum, Marcus and Ivanova, trying 
to find First Ones to aid the Rangers, discover a 
massive Vorlon tied hidden in a pocket of 
hyperspace. The league of Non-Aligned Worlds 
holds an open rally to protest Delenn’s actions. As 
their mood turns hostile, a craft docks at the 
station and Sheridan. I .often beside him. appears 
in the Zocalo. Sheridan convinces the league 
worlds to join the attack. Zack intercepts the 
freighter that salvaged Garibaldi's Start dry. A 
iifepod containing the unconscious security chief 
ejects front the craft. The freighter self-destructs. 
Emperor Cartagia. unable to break G'Kar's spirit, 
continues his torture. Near death during a brutal 
whipping. G'Kar finally screams not to save 
himself, but to save his race. 

‘*1 loved Wortham’s Cartagia, he really brought 
a wonderful element 1o the show," said John 
Copeland. "I think all of the stuff that we shot 
with him was our homage to *1, Claudius' and 
Caligula. Joe has always loved that mmiseries. We 
also did some very cool effects shots that sold the 
Emperor's garden as really being outside." 



Jeff Conaway as B5 security chief Zack, and 
Richard Biggs as Dr. Franklin In “The Sum¬ 
moning," as the Non-Aligned Worlds protest. 


“Don't send the ships. Let it burn. Mol lari. Lei 
it all end in fire." 

—Cartagia tci Londo 

Fall ing Toward Apotheosis **** 

11/25/1996, #404 Writicn by J. Miclwd Nlrac/y n\ki, Uirrdn) 
by I hi* ill Ktfjtfr. 

Fearing Kush’s presence is a threat to the 
Alliance, Sheridan orders him removed. Lyta 
Alexander lures the ambassador into a trap 
During the fire fight, the Vorlon's true form is 
revealed—a Icntacled, ectoplasmic creature of 
light. The piece of Kosh inside Sheridan is 
released and the two Vorlons intertwine in battle 
and they depart through the ceiling and outside of 
the station they explode, txirien replenishes 
Sheridan's life force with some of his own. He 
explains that Sheridan w ilt live lor only 20 years, 
the price of his survival on Z'ha'dum. Sheridan 
proposes to Delenn. l ondo worries Centauri 
Prime is a Vorlon target. Cartagia, positive they 


89 


























On the White Star, representatives of the Vorlons 
and Shadows agree to end the Shadow War and 
leave the Milky Way to the younger races. 


"Vnu know. (he one thin)’ in life that you can he 
sure about is that you arc going to make 
mistakes." 

—Garibaldi to /.ark 

Epiphanies * ** 12 

110/1997. #407 Written h> J, Mu loid Slrarn luki. Ihrrrlnl hv 
John C. Mmn. III. 

The Centaurum vote to delay deciding on a 
new Emperor. I .on do departs for B5 after 
appointing the Minister (Damian Loudon) as 
interim Regent. Garibaldi quits as Security Chief. 
Hester returns, telling Sheridan of President 
Clark's plot to embargo B5. Clark also plans to 
undercut public support for the station using Psi 
Corps' Black Omega squadron to attack an 
Earth Force transport and leave evidence blaming 
H5, Sheridan lakes Beslcr to Z’ha'dum for 
Shadow technology to cure his lover, Carolyn. 
Lyta sends a telepathic message and ihc Shadows' 
allies evacuate Zha’dum Sheridan anticipates 
it’s a trap and reverses the White Star’s course, 
lire planet explodes taking with it all the 
remaining Shadow technology. Before leaving, 
Bcster visits Carolyn's cryostasis chamber and 
vows io damage Sheridans s alliance if they 
interfere w ith his plans. Awaking during a had 
dream, the Regent discovers a new nightmare—a 


will attack, anticipates the planet burning as a 
pyre lo his godhood londo suggests trial and 
execution of G'Kar on Narn so that after the 
Ccntauri are eradicated. Cartagia will be 
remembered. Cartagia agrees and has one of 
G'Kar's eyes plucked because it offended him. 

"What got to me was the technicalities of the 
speejal effects," said David Eagle, referring to 
the moment in which Rosh was electrocuted by 
Sheridan and his staff. “It was such a 
complicated scene to shoot." 1b help everyone. 
Eagle commissioned storyboards so thal he 
could communicate his wishes via drawings. A 
safety mccling was held by all participants. “As 
we prepared to shoot the scene, we set it up, had 
three cameras, and three angles. What is 
supposed to happen is |Kosh’s] head explodes 
and the Kosh energy creature comes out. That was 
the way it was scripted.” 

Three Kosh “heads" were available and on 
standby for additional lakes. Bui in the preparation 
of the first take, with three cameramen in the 
danger zone, someone miscued Ihc head’s 
explosion prematurely. Cinematographer John 
Elinn was angry and upset as his son. John IV who 
was a camera operator, was one of those three 
people who could have been hurt. A second safety 
meeting was held while John Vulich repaired 
Kosh. Bui the second head fell off, smashing it. 
Ultimately, the final effect was pulled off in post- 
production wilh CGI graphics. 


Vlr assassinates Cartagia with a syringe in “The 
Long Night," executing Londo and G'Kar’s plot to 
eliminate the influence of the Shadows. 


"Why don't the Vorlons tell the Humans/Army of 
Light thal the weapon they need to defeat the 
Shadows are telepaths? After all, they altered 
human DNA in early Earth history to create 
telepaths, preparing them for the future battle. 

•‘They and the Minbari shared the battle 1,000 
years ago. and since the cycle is repealing anew, 
w hy don't the Vorlons pass on as much 
information as possible to help slop or reduce the 
loss of life in the battle? Why do Vorlons allow- the 
humans to make their discoveries the hard way?" 
Lor answers, we asked Kosh himself. "In many 
ways the humans were simply pawns in the game 
that the Shadows and the Vorlons were playing," 
replied Jeffrey Willerth. “To give the humans all 
the information thal they needed would have made 
that information accessible to the Shadows. 
Vorlons could not afford to lei the Shadows 
understand their strategies and tactics. It would 
have been an information leak to have given the 
humans all the information. It would have altered 
the way that the Vorlons and the Shadows were 
playing w ith each other. It wasn't that they wanted 
to go into battle necessarily, hut they certainly 
wanted to win. As Sheridan described it. it was 
settling squabbles that was going on between the 
Shadows and Vorlons. It was a matter of who was 
going to he right." 


the Vorlons and Coriana b. An apocalyptic battle 
begins with losses among all fleets. Calling 
reinforcements from the Hirst Ones recruited by 
Ivanova and Loricn, the battle stops. Sheridan 
speaks with bolh the Vorlons and Shadows. He 
and Deleon convince them to stop controlling the 
younger races based on the argument that they no 
longer know who they are or what they want, 
Lorien declares that the Hirst Ones, Shadows and 
Vorlons should pass beyond the Rim. The younger 
races are left to determine their own future as Ihc 
Shadow War ends and Ihc Third Age of Mankind 
begins. 

“We never lake the simple way of doing 
almost anything in this show, much as we'd like to 
sometimes," said Joe Straczynski. “Any time 
you’re going to have a massive struggle, it’s going 
to have mythic repercussions. A struggle that’s 
going on for millennia would touch cultures in 
development and lake on mythical, religious 
significance. We’re going to play fair with the 
characters and with the scenario. 'Hie show itself 
is not religious, some of the characters are 
religious. If you're going to have a character 
who’s a scientist or a religious person, you have to 
treat that honestly. Someone thanked me for 
creating a very moral show. And I corrected him. 
This is not a moral show. I don’t have any morals 
to give anybody. It is an ethical show in the sense 
that it raises ethical questions and leaves it the 
view er to debate and decide and determine what is 
correct for them. Thai should be the role of 
television, to he ethical in its discussions. Not to 
be moral and tell you what to think." 


Londo looks on In horror as mad Centauri 
Emperor Cartagia dusts off a severed human 
head In "Falling Toward Apotheosis." 


“A Vorlon said understanding is a three-edged 
sword: your side, their side...and the truth. The 
truth is we don't need you anymore." 

—Sheridan to "Vorlons" 


“There is no choice. By the end of this day, 
either Cartagia is dead or Centauri Prime will 
he destroyed." 

—Hondo 

The Long Night **** 

I 27 IW #405 United by J. Mkh*r| Simjytivki. Himrlnj hy 
Jfihn l ^hi 

Londo visits G’Kar’s cell to discuss their 
plot. G'Kar w ill wear weakened chains and 
break them, distracting Cartagia's guards. Londo 
w ill take the Emperor aside and inject an 
indefectible neurotoxin. The Emperor threatens 
the plan by replacing G’Kar's chains. G'Kar’s 
passion lets him break his new bonds and he 
wreaks havoc in the throne room. Cartagia 
accidentally knocks the syringe from Londo to 
the floor. Vir retrieves it and slabs the Emperor 
between the hearts, killing him. After Londo is 
made Prime Minister, he and Vir race home to 
remove the Shadows and prevent a Vorlon 
attack. Sheridan orders White Star I4's 
commander, Ericsson (Bryan Cranston) on a 
suicide mission. He will plant false information 
for the Shadows about an alliance base at 
Coriana 6, the Vorlons' next target. Sheridan 
hopes for a direct confrontation between the two 
forces. If he fails, Coriana b w ill he destroyed 
and six billion will die. 

With an enormous battle building between the 
Vorlons and the Shadows, one begins lo wonder. 


I nto the F ire **+1/2 

2 03/IW7. #406 Unitrn lit J. Miiliarl .Htnu/tfitki- Dirrdnl l»> 
Rrtifl lltilrwin. 

Londo and Vir must erase every trace of 
Shadow influence from Centauri Prime. Morden 
refuses to remove the Shadow's’ base, so Londo 
blows up the island. Morden warns that the 
Shadows have allies who'll ensure the Centauri 
w ill pay the price. Sheridan's forces neutralize a 
Vorlon observation post and puts his fleet between 

Jerry Doyle as Garibaldi draws a blank (ace in the 
fog of the bathroom mirror In “Epiphanies," 
quitting his post as security chief on Babylon 5. 













£ ( Joe purposely put us 
together knowing we 
had a history that went 
back 34 years. [Writer] 
Harlan [Ellison] has al¬ 
ways had a secret pas¬ 
sion to be an actor. 3 3 


—Actor Waiter Koenig— 


maud stuff treated Lytu." said Patri¬ 
cia Tallmun. "They just took advan¬ 
tage of her and later they tried to 
take her out of her quarters. She 
was never asked out for a pizza. 

But they ask her for favors continu¬ 
ously. It was just odd to me because 
they were so lovely to each other. 

They treated her like a leper. That 
encapsulated the view of how 
telepalhs were treated by humans. 

That's kind of a microcosm of what 
was going on at Barth, among nor¬ 
mal humans." 

Over the last six episodes of the season, 
Slraezynski juxtaposed several major threads 
that ultimately collided late in the season: 
Garibaldi's personal meeting with his bene¬ 
factor, William Edgars (veteran actor Efrem 
Zimbalist, Jr.) and Sheridans increasing ob¬ 
session to collate a fleet against Earth. 

In a private meeting inside a shuttle car, 
in “The Face of the Enemy," we watched as 
a major plot unfolded when Psi Cop Bester 
revealed that he had brainwashed Michael 
Garibaldi to locate a hidden threat to the Psi 
Corps' existence. Walter Koenig recalled the 
day in which this shuttle car scene was 
filmed. “That was certainly a very powerful 
episode," he said. “Even though Bester only 
had one scene, it was a very strong scene. I 
loved the way they shot it. They brought a 
lot of intensity to the scene by cutting from 
medium-close to tight shots, to very tight 
shots. We look at his eyes or to his lips as 
he’s speaking. "It was a relatively stagnant 


scene in terms of movement. When I fin¬ 
ished performing it. I wondered to myself 
whether it was intense enough. It seemed re¬ 
ally underplayed. But when I saw it on the 
screen, I realized the camera underscored 
each moment. When they brought in the mu¬ 
sic, it enhanced the work. I could see from 
the dailies it was definitely improved by the 
way it was shot." 

An added feature of this sequence were in 
the flashbacks w hen Garibaldi's experiences 
were replayed and we saw how B5's former 
security chief was wheeled into Psi Corps’ 
chambers for programming. In a brief black 
and w hite moment, Bester gave his orders to 
another Psi Cop. who just happens to 
be..Tfarlun Ellison, the writer and series con¬ 
ceptual consultant! “Joe purposely put us to¬ 
gether in (hat scene knowing that we had a 
history that went back 34 years," acknowl¬ 
edged Koenig. "Harlan has always had a se¬ 
cret passion to be an actor. I le was a bit ner¬ 
vous when he did the episode.” 

Throughout. Ellison con¬ 
tributed in different ways. He 
served as a sounding board for 
the producers, read scripts, 
viewed episodes, lent books on 
costuming. He was the voice of 
"Sparky," B5’s computer in 
"Ceremonies of Light and 
Dark." and Zooty’s machine 
voice in "Day of the Dead." He 
also contributed ideas for story 
elements like the Shadow Plan¬ 
et Killer as seen in “The Long 
Night.” For fifth season’s "A 
View from the Gallery," he sug¬ 
gested the episode be written 
from the point of view of the 


Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) finds the station at the mercy of ISN 
reporters, manipulating the facts in “The Illusion of Truth.” 




First One, Lorien (Wayne Alexander), replenishes 
Sheridan’s life force in “Falling Toward Apotheosis."giving 
him twenty years to live, makeup by Optic Nerve Studios. 


Keeper, all ached to his neck. 

“There’s a moment where Hester is talking 
w ith his girlfriend and she's in one of those cryo- 
chambers,” recalled Waller Koenig. “Me has a 
moment with her at the end of the vhow. He's 
talking to her and its a very nice speech. I 
suggested to Jue that he might want to have a little 
hit of a closure to Ihe story of Carolyn with a 
monologue that he would have. And that's what he 
wrote, ihis monologue which is more of a 
snliliHjuy than a monologue. That was interesting. 

1 thoroughly enjoyed that.” 


“There is no force in this galaxy lhal can stop 
what we have done here together. Nothing will 
tic able to stop us.” 

—Sheridan 

The Illusion of Truth *** 

2/17/1997. MQf Written by J, Mfrlwcl MwtyaiU. Stephen 
Flint. 

ISN. now Clark's propaganda machine, sends 
journalist Dan Randall (Jeff Griggs) to lour 
HahyUvn 5 and Him a report. Sheridan, hoping to 
partly represent B5’s point of view, agrees. 

Randall films Sheridan with alien ambassadors, 

Ihe mcdlah area including Ihe cryoslasis chambers, 
and Delenn and Sheridan together, lie interviews 
Garibaldi who says Sheridan has a "God 
complex." The report, slyly edited and full of oul 
of context clips, airs. It creates the impression lhat 
aliens are controlling Sheridan. Randall brings in 
psychologist Dr. Indin (Henry I Jar row), an expert 
on Minhari War Syndrome. Me claims lhal 
Sheridan is suffering from self hatred, causing him 
to side with Ihe Minban and other races, believing 
them superior to humans. Randall implies that, 
hacked by Delenn. Sheridan plans to force humans 
to become half-Minhari. He slips in a reference 
lhat his father is missing. 

Almost a remake of second season's "And 
Now for a Word." this episode spotlights the B5 
staffers in a manipulated report by ISN at a time 
when the war with President Clark is still going 
on. “It was a different spin on a similar story.” 
said John Copeland. "‘Illusion of Trulh' really 
had to do with the making ol propaganda and 
how things can be taken oui of context and 
given an extremely insidious spin. In point of 
fact, it is a cautionary tale of the power of the 
press. ” 



ISN journalist Dan Randall (Jeff Griggs) tours the 
station to file a filmed report that suggests 
Sheridan is selling out in “The Illusion of Truth." 


“If we do not know these humans, then they are 
a mystery to us. The universe puts a mystery in 
front of us as a gift. Politeness requires lhal we 
at least try to solve it.” 

—Delenn to Dukhal 

Atonement a a* 

i'Jt*.'|997. MCIV Writtc* h\ J. Mu luri Antqwld. lUmtrd In 
hint Dow. 

Franklin replaces G'Kar’s missing eye with a 

91 

















ill‘matched prosthetic Sheridan sends Franklin 
and Marcus on a mission lo Mars. Calcnn (Brian 
Carpenter), one of Delenn's clan leaders, comes to 
B5 insisting Delenn return to Minhar to be judged, 
t hey believe her relationship with a human 
endangers the purify of their race, Delenn and 
I-cnmer enter “The Dreaming" and relive events 
leading lo the death of Dukhal (Reiner Shone) in 
2243. loiter, w ith Calcnn, they hear Dukh.it \ 
dying words that Delenn is a child of Valen. now 
known to have been the human, Jefferey Sinclair. 
Delenn asks Lennier to retrieve historical records 
from the Grey Council chambers. They prove that 
after the last Great War. Vilen’s descendants 
introduced human DNA into Minban society 
Fearing the information might cause “great 
contusion" among the Minhart, the matter is 
dropped. Delenn may he given to Sheridan as a 
symbol of peace between the Human and Minhari 
races. 

Actor Brian Carpenter who portrayed Calcnn. 
Delenn's clan leader, was surprised when he made 
a stalling discovery upon taking this role 
"Minharis are hard of hearing," he said. "My real 
ears were covered with latex, so I had to really 
concentrate on what other people were saying. I 
could hear my own voice reverberating in my 
head. "I was thrilled that the role was large and 
important in the episode I was really glad I had 
spent lime learning my lines I did my biggest 
scene m the episode, m the temple, in one lake? 

We did go buck and do a couple of pickups but 
basically we got it all done right away. Dial was 
very satisfying and fun; it was like doing theatre 
because the room was full of an ’audience* of 
extras, as well as the crew.” 

For Carpenter, filming “Atonement" provided 
an unexpected bonus. "I was in Child Star heaven. 
Tony Dow. formerly Wally from LEAVE IT TO 
BEAVER. was directing the episode He was 
great! He's a really nice guy and we got along 
well. Also, Bill Mumy. formerly Will Rohinson on 
LOST IN SI’ACF. and a character in at least one 
classic TWILIGHT /.ONE. was in a couple of my 
scenes. He was also very friendly and fun to work 
with. It was a thrill to be associated with both 
these actors whose work I had known for years!” 



Delenn asks Lennier to retrieve historical records 
from the Grey Council chambers Involving 
human DNA experiments in "Atonement." 


“The Captain's never forgotten about Mars." 

—I)r. Franklin, to Mars resistance leader 

•Woo-hoo?" _ _ 

—Lennier to Sheridan 

Racing Mars ★** 

4 2] |W7, §410 Writlrn by J. Michael Slrac/tosM. Lhrrctnfl by 
Jntn Sahadiir Tmipu. 

Franklin and Marcus, seeking a coalition with 
the Mars Resistance, meet Captain Jack (Donovan 
Scott), who handles first contacts for the 
Resistance Mars believes Sheridan has forsaken 
them. Franklin and Marcus explain that Sheridan 
was fighting the Shadow War Captain Jack 
attempts to assassinate Number One (Marjorie 



Bruce Boxleitner as Sheridan jams off-camera with three Elvises during filming of “Epiphanies." 
Straczynski used the three kings arriving on the station as a brief visual pun for Sheridan's faux divinity. 


two mechanics. 

For Bruce Boxleitner, 
the story threads detail¬ 
ing Sheridan's hold 
gambit to defeat Presi¬ 
dent Clark in the middle 
to end of this season was 
the series' finest hours. 

“For me, that’s where 
the series peaked,” he 
said, “That was the high 
point, where we brought 
the war home. Sheridan 
got to really bear down 
and be Captain Ahab- 
ish, like MOBY DICK. 

That was the feeling I wanted to get, his ob¬ 
session for Clark's forces, and to hang him. I 
thought it was quite exciting." 

Director David Eagle recalled a major 
incident involving actor Richard Biggs dur¬ 
ing the filming of "Between the Darkness 
and the Light” which indicated just how in¬ 
tense filming became. The setting was this; 
Lyla, (iaribaldi and Franklin were running 
through the caverns of Mars, attempting to 
rescue the captured Captain Sheridan. The 
scene had Garibaldi deck a pair of guards 
and Biggs was eager to join the fray. “Rick 
Biggs said to me. ‘David, it's getting lo be 
the end of the fourth season, we don’t know 
if we’re going to be back for the fifth, and I 
never get to gel into fights. 1 know it's not 
scripted, but I’d like to get into this one/ I 
said, ‘Gee Rick, I can't just arbitrarily make 
that kind of decision. You know how Joe is. 
He writes things very specifically and if I 
were to make that big a change, that could 
affect something in the future. I don’t want 
to do that without his permission." 

During lunch, he allowed Biggs to 
choreograph the moment with stunt coordi¬ 
nator Kerry Rossall. but Straczynski was 
unusually absent so Fugle got the okay 
from John Copeland. But when the time 
came to film the moment where Franklin 


would slug a guard. 
Rick Biggs' fist actually 
connected with his op¬ 
ponent’s jaw and sent 
him flying, with blood 
splattering all over. 
Everyone was horrified 
and filming stopped. 
“Rick felt terrible after 
having nagged me about 
getting into the fight 
scene that he came up to 
me with his tail between 
his legs and said. ‘I will 
never ask to do some¬ 
thing that isn't scripted 
again and I will never question the direc¬ 
tor's judgment or decision on a scene!’ ” re¬ 
called Eagle. 

“The stuntman came back from the hos¬ 
pital at the end of the day with his eye ban¬ 
daged up. He would miss a few days of 
work but he was going to be okay. Rick was 
greatly relieved to hear this and was the 
first one to sec the stuntman, apologized 
and made sure he was okay." 

Looking back over her experience of 
filming this season, Patricia Tuilman re¬ 
called, "I remember my joy of being a regu¬ 
lar cast member, of being part of a team,” 
she said. “I remember working out a sched¬ 
ule for my son and I, so I could go to work 
and he could be okay. Missing him during 
the day and making friends with the cast 
and crew. They're going to be friends forev¬ 
er for me.” 

Also reviewing the fourth season, direc¬ 
tor David Eagle opined. “My feeling was it 
was too rushed. The whole season was too 
rushed and there was a reason for it. Joe 
[StraczynskiJ and John [Copeland| felt 
there would not be a fifth season. ‘Into the 
Fire' should have been a two-parter. That's 
something that should have taken much 
longer. Joe was trying to cram iwo season's 
worth into one season." 


i £ In the Londo story you 
can never take out fate. 
He couldn’t get out of the 
the way of his own deci¬ 
sions, but there was a 
bigger hand pushing 
him along. Cursed! 5 J 


- Actor Peter Jurasik— 


92 
























Moiuj’han). Marcus shoois Jack in the shoulder, 
killtnjz a keeper. Jack escapes. Franklin’s 
examination shows that the creature joins itself to 
the neuro-ennirni centers of a host, increasingly 
influencing it. On B5, Sheridan confronts 
Garibaldi about his ISN interview. Michael 
accuses Sheridan of believing himself more 
important than the cause. Wade (Mark Schneider) 
witnesses this and urges Michael to help him slop 
Sheridan. Dclcnn advises Sheridan to apologize 
for losing his temper. C laiming that Sheridan has 
messianic delusions, Garibaldi punches him. 
Garibaldi joins Wade’s conspiracy. 

Of all the characters that populated the saga's 
tapestry, which one has remained relatively 
intact? "Of all the arcs. Garibaldi's is one of 
those that changed the least from my original 
notes," said Joe Straczynski. “In fact, the other 
day, as we were closing dow n some of the 115 
facilities, 1 glanced over the original notebook 
that had my original notes on the scries, prepared 
as a guidebook for the whole series. I broke out 
my notes onto individual cards. 22 per season, 
fur five years, and laid the whole thing out in this 
one big notebook with card-slots on every page. 

A couple of other people were in the room, and 
they saw it. The first time anyone other lhan 
myself had ever seen it. Ironically, it was there in 
plain sight in my office for five years, nobody 
ever noticed it, just one more black notebook. 
They were surprised at just how much had not 
changed in the overall arc and there was 
Garibaldi’s arc, beat for beat, from the 
beginning.” 



Franklin, Marcus, and Mars Resistance teader 
Number One (Marjorie Monaghan) try to save the 
doomed Captain Jack in “Racing Mars”. 


“IjkiK, if they want to play games, well fine. We 
can play games loo, only we can play them 
heller, liecause we have I he truth on our side. 
You can't kill the truth...Actually, you can kill 
the truth, hut it always comes hack to haunt 
you later." 

—Sheridan to Ivanova 

Lines ok Communication *** 

4 in ml IV nil i n hjr J. Mktiarl Nlrauymkr llirrrlrd h> John 
C. tlinn, tit. 

Dclcnn goes to the border of M inbari space, 
where their allies transports have been raided. 
Fore 11 (G. W. Stevens), a Religious caste crew 
member, threatens Dclcnn at gunpoint. He 
demands she listen to the attackers. A Drakh 
Emissary (Jean-Luc Martin) boards. Forell 
warns of increasing strife between the Religious 
and Warrior castes. The Emissary promises the 
Drakh will prevent Warrior control of Minbar. if 
(he Religious caste allies with the Drakh. In 
return, the Drakh want a new home on an 
uninhabited world, bordering Minhuri space. 
Delenn agrees to consider their request. She and 
Lennier realize the Drakh were Shadow servants 
on Z’ha’dum. Recognizing Dclcnn as an 
accomplice in the destruction of Z’ha’dum, the 
Drakh attacks her ship. Delenn’s crew' heats the 



John Iacouelli on designing 
Straczynski’s 5-mile-long station. 


By Frank Garcia 
and Robert T. Garcia 

It’s not every day that someone asks 
you to build the interiors of a five-mile- 
long space station. Joe Straczynski did 
just that when he met and spoke with 
John Iacovelli. Straczynski needed a 
strong and versatile production designer 
for his ambitious five-year saga, lacovel- 
li (HONEY. I SHRUNK THE KIDS) was 
a veteran of stage, television and film 
productions, and had the requisite back¬ 
ground needed for the project. 

Babylonian Productions, in a move to 
save money, moved their production off 
the Warner Bros lot (where the pilot was 
filmed) and into a gigantic warehouse in 
Sun Valley. There, Iacovelli and a small 
army of construction specialists cus¬ 
tomized it for the series’ five year run. 

“We found this building and we had 
about eight weeks to literally build these 
interior walls, soundproof the building 
and build 16 sets to start shooting,” re¬ 
called Iacovelli. “It was a pretty daunting 
task. We tried to show that BABYLON 
5’s a big place, analogous to something the 
size of Manhattan in space. There’s always 
that challenge to make it seem bigger than 
an ocean liner.” 

To accomplish the illusion he used all 
the tricks of his trade. The sets were divided 
between three soundstages, A, B and C. To 
fit in a large number of sets in a limited 
space of 60,000 feel, Iacovelli pulled a trick 
from theater productions and installed the 
practice of using “swing stages.” That 
means sets are constantly redressed for 
multi-purpose uses. 

“Almost every set was redressed for an 
episode," said Iacovelli. “The Observation 
Dome was the Bridge to another ship. 
We’ve done (hat a couple of times with 
[Earth Force warships] the Agamemnon 
and the Cortez. On Stage A we had this area 
called the Docking Bay which was basical¬ 
ly an open area which was very flexible and 
wc often put other smaller sets within that. 



Production designer John Iacovelli, behind-the-scenes 
third season, building Straczynski* science fiction 
universe inside a warehouse in Sun Valley, California. 


“We moved them around. There’s the 
Fresh Aire restaurant which was in the same 
place as the Zen Garden. Every set doubled 
at least once. The Council Chamber, I think, 
we’ve gotten six or eight sets out of that ba¬ 
sic set-up. Actually, the Med Bay was the 
only set that did not become some other 
set.” 

A number of “fold and hold” sets were 
created. When not in use, those sets were 
collapsed down and stored in a fenced area 
of the facility’s parking lot, and brought out 
when needed. With the weather being as dry 
as it was in Sun Valley, Iacovelli remem¬ 
bered that they didn’t have tarps over them 
at first. Then one night, a storm moved in 
and he found himself calling crew members 
to rush over to the studio and cover the 
stored sets. 

To create the Zocalo (which doubled for 
the Main Corridor) Iacovelli used forced 
perspective tricks to create the 135-foot 


93 




















Drukh mothership. To counter Clark's 
propaganda. Sheridan appoints Ivanova m 
charge of the Voice of the Resistance 
slellareasts. Franklin and Marcus tell the Mars 
Resistance leadership if they support Sheridan's 
cause, he will make Mars an independent state 
once Earth is liberated. 

Delenn gave a speech about how destroying is 
easy but rebuilding is what's really hard. She has 
to return to Minbar and rebuild the fractured Cray 
Council. Such drama and speeches are 
meaningful for actress Mira Fur Ian because of her 
Yugoslavian background. “If I know that an actor 
has a button that I can push I am not opposed to 
doing so in the course of the script.” noted Joe 
Strac/ynski. “I knew that Mira F'urlan went 
through a great deal in Yugoslavia and I knew that 
if I put her in a situation where we have to have 
her talking about a similar situation happening 
with the Minhari. out of that will come a truth in 
her performance that in another actor might not 
he there. I try to find the points w'herc I can 
connect the actor to the pari because then a 
certain verisimilitude comes into the 
performance. 

“For example, in one moment, Delenn 
addressed the Cray Council and admonished them. 
’You sItHHj here and did nothing!’ Certainly the 
world stood by and let Yugoslavia tear itself apart 
from the inside and the anger that comes through 
that performance was very obvious.’ In fact, that 
day at lunch, after that scene, she walked over to 
me and said. ’So, how long were you living in 
Yugoslavia?" 

Noted Mira Furtan. “Other immigrants have 
the privilege to he nostalgic towards their 
homelands, hut we don't have one. II*s been 
destroyed and it’s now come down to these 
claustrophobic, half-fascist little stales that hale 
all the surroundings, the foreigners and all the 
minorities. 

‘There is a lot in IX'lenn that I can connect to. 
Her being isolated from her own people and her 
being somewhere in between, not really belonging 
to any kind of group and so on. Sometimes it 
really makes me wonder. All these parallels and all 
these coincidences." 



Delenn telle Sheridan she can’t accompany him 
on his campaign against Earth but must return 
to Minbar in “Lines of Communication 


“If you’rt' gonna wait for the universe to start 
making sense, you have a long wait ahead of 
you." —Sheridan to Zack 

Conflicts of Interests *★* 

5 05 IW #412 Wrtltrn h> J, Mklurl StrarjvftikL Dirrrlrd by 
Uiiikd haglr. 

Zack Allen is ordered to relieve Garibaldi of 
his Security liicniicard. military issue weapons 
and com link Wade assigns Garibaldi to help a 
client from Mars pass Customs without 
Security checks. It’s Garibaldi’s ex- fiancee, Lise 
Hampton (Denise Gentile), now married to Mars 
pharmaceuticals magnate. William Edgars. Zack 


central corridor. The set 
curved slightly upward 
at an angle, went for 
about 50 or 60 feet, and 
then rose off the floor 
for another 10 or 20, 
getting smaller and 
smaller lo meet a paint¬ 
ed backdrop. It was one 
of the few sets not en¬ 
hanced by computer 
graphics to achieve it's 
desired effect of size 
and depth. 

For the miles of 
smaller corridors. la- 
covclli devised an inge¬ 
nious solution to shoot 
six to 60 feel of corri¬ 
dors. He created a mod¬ 
ular design that could 
wrap behind the other 
working sets in which a 
small Stcadicam opera¬ 
tor could film those long 
walks with two actors 
talking. 

With an art depart¬ 
ment staff under him of 
about 25 people who 
were usually on call and 
with set decorators, con¬ 
struction coordinators, 
painters, art directors 
and props masters col¬ 
laborating with him, la- 
covelli kept up a high 
engine activity on a sev¬ 
en-day pre-production 
schedule. 

lacovelli and his staff were constantly on 
the move, adapting their work to the needs 
of the script at hand. “Things happened here 
so fast." he said. ’’Sometimes we had a set 
that we only had one or two days to prep, 
and so often we just had to make the quick 
and cheap solution as opposed to the ideal 
solution." 

And a CGI solution was often the solu¬ 
tion that presented itself to the production 
staff. Like the space station's Observation 
Dome which originally was to have been 
one of show’s major sets, but problems 
arose and the set was only built about waist 
high for the blue screen stage. The rest of it 
was added optically. 

Occasionally, during the course of read¬ 
ing scripts and going through the "break¬ 
down" process, determining what the set 
requirements were, lacovelli felt over¬ 
whelmed or excited when new and spectac¬ 
ular sets appeared. He was often relieved 
when, in fact, those sets were created ’’digi¬ 
tal I yinside the computer by the SFX 
guys, 

"Sometimes that happened, sometimes 
we got fooled by that," said lacovelli. ’Td 
read a script and I'd think that it's going to 
be something real creative and then it’s a 


virtual set. On an 
episode that Adam Ni- 
moy directed, I was 
very excited about do¬ 
ing some off-Babyion 5 
sets. We just couldn't 
afford them, they were 
just too big and so we 
pared it down." 

And once the CGI- 
SFX artists got their 
hands on those scenes, 
said lacovelli. "Even 
(hough I was disap¬ 
pointed, when I looked 
at the dailies it looked 
terrific, and it looked 
different, and looked 
like some other place. 
So that’s prettv great. 
We really liked that.” 

Later, new sets were 
installed to accommo¬ 
date the series’ constant¬ 
ly-evolving storyline. In 
the early seasons we 
in the Casi¬ 
no and when that was 
pha sed out, we spent 
time in the War Room 
during the Shadow War. 
With increasing fre¬ 
quency, we visited the 
Narn homeworld or in¬ 
side the Centauri Pal¬ 
ace. And later, we got 
familiar with the White 
Star, a M inban-Vorlon 
hybrid battleship. 

Even when the script 
did not call for changes, lacovelli never 
let the sets alone. Between seasons, he 
and his staff would add more and more de¬ 
tails to various character's rooms, going 
so far as buying Garibaldi's Daffy Duck 
bath towel from the local Warner Bros 
store, to add depth to the character. He al¬ 
so hud all the bridge graphics and signage 
upgraded, and did total redesigns on 
standing sets like the sick bay. which had 
to be completely redone between seasons 
one year. 

"Over the years we added things and 
changed a little bit,” remembered lacovel¬ 
li. "It worked well for us because it was a 
very trademark kind of unusual look. I 
feel like this looks like my work more 
than any other show I’ve worked on. 
There’s sort of an accepted way to do a 
sitcom set, or a TV movie set. In this 
show, there were no rules. I felt that I’ve 
really been able to give it a visual look 
that’s my sensibility. 

"I surrounded myself with a really in¬ 
credibly good staff. 1 micro-managed 
everything and was in charge of every little 
detail and certainly had veto privileges that 
way, but I really gave a lot of confidence in 
my staff to come up with ideas.” 


6 Things happened so 
fast. Sometimes we had 
a set with one or two days 
to prep. Often we had to 
make the quick, cheap 
solution as opposed to 
the ideal solution, J 5 

—Prod. Designer John lacovelli— 



The station's distinctive main corridor 
set. built for the pilot at the Santa Clarita 
Production Center, moved to Sun Valley. 


saw activitv 


94 



















finds Garibaldi's unauthorized Customs Bay entry 
Garibaldi tricked Zack with a second Ulcnlicard. A 
courier gives Lise a vial supposedly containing a 
cure to a plague affecting tele pat Its. Two telepathic 
hit men try to steal the vial and to kill Lise and 
Wade, hut Garibaldi helps them escape. Garibaldi 
discovers his idcnlicards security clearance is 
canceled. He realizes their pursuers are telepaths 
and outsmarts them. The assassins commit suicide 
before they can be captured. Ivanova begins the 
Voice of the Resistance stellarcasls using pow'er 
from Epsilon 3. Sheridan deals with G’Kar and 
Londo to allow Ranger patrols of their borders. 

‘ Jerry (Doyle) had a blast on that show,” said 
David Eagle. "He loved jumping up to the roof 
and crawling through the air ducts. When they're 
being chased by the telepaths, and being trapped 
in a small room. Garibaldi shoots off a ventilation 
cover in the ceiling and piled up some of the 
r«Mint’s debris so they can climb up. Denise 
[Gcniitc| goes up first, then Mark (Schneider). As 
Murk goes up, he kniw/ks over the stuff they just 
piled up. That was not scripted. It was an accident. 
Jerry could have just stood there and I could have 
yelled ‘Cut!’ Bui I decided to let it play oul, see 
how far would he take it. Jerry just goes, ‘Aw, 
nuts!’ He looks up. puts his PPG gun in his bell 
and just leaps and grabs the ceiling and pulls 
himself up. Totally unscripted. Unrehearsed. The 
whole set just broke oul into applause. That’s 
what's in the show. It really made the scene. It was 
between an eight to nine foot leap. 1 know I 
couldn't have done it. I'm just glad 1 didn't yell 
‘Cut!’ before he went through with it. We tried 
shooting it again but he ended up not being able to 
pull himself up (he second time. He just hung 
there. It’s on the gag reel.” 


New Security Chief Zack Allen and Sheridan 
interrogate Jerry Doyle as Garibaldi, stripped of 
his security identicard in ’ Conflicts of Interest." 


“First, one brief announcement. I just wanted 
to mention for those who have asked that 
absolutely nothing whatsoever happened today 
in sector K3/9/12.1 repeat, nothing happened. 
Please remain calm.” 

—Ivanova 


Rumors. Bargains and Lies 


*** 


5 (2/1947. #41.' VVriiti n hi j. Michael Strac/iniki. Jhmi.il b* 
Mieliar I Vejar. 

Deleuii. heading for Minbar, invites Alit 
Ncroon (John Vickery) to meet with her on the 
While Star. Despite their past differences they 
agree to work together to slop the Minbari Civil 
War. The Religious caste members who fear that 
Dclcnn is planning to surrender to the Warrior 
caste, weigh their options. Striking openly would 
divide their caste, so instead they decide to release 
a residue from the ship's fuel system, poisoning 
the ship’s air supply. Dclcnn announces that she is 
not surrendering and that their deaths will be 
meaningless. Lennier, who overheard their plan, 
shuts off the gas cylinder, hut inhales enough toxin 
to damage a lung. Recovering. Lennier sees 
Ncroon unexpectedly leaving the ship. Prom his 


Delenn comforts Lennier, who has prevented the 
religious caste from poisintng the ship on the 
way to Minbar in “Rumors. Bargains and Lies." 

private flyer, Ncroon contacts Warrior caste leader. 
Shakiri. informing him he has the Religious 
caste's counterattack plans. On B5, Sheridan 
deceives the League ambassadors into believing a 
threat to their shipping is present, so they will 
agree to deploy Ranger patrols on their borders. 

The notion of having an alien society ordered 
around a caste system slartcd out as a SF device 
but later, fans wrote to Joe Straczynski and 
assumed he was a medieval scholar. "That was the 
structure of that period of time: people were in one 
of three categories as a rule, worker, warrior or 
religious caste.” he said. I hadn't realized it al the 
time, but it definitely fits Minbari society. I also 
knew that the concept of the One went to the one 
who was, the tine who is, the one who w ill be, and 
figured 1 may as well carry that motif through.” 


"And...Well, there’s just no delicate way t« say 
this. I want your body." 

“What! Are you oul of your mind?” 

“Hell, that’s a very funny question to ask a 
felepalh.” —Hester and Lvla 


Moments of Transition 


*** 


5.19 1997. *414 Wrillrn hi J. Mirharl StmczynMU. hi 

Tony Him. 

Dclcnn, witnessing the bombardment of 
Yedor, the Minbari capital, instructs the Religious 
caste to surrender. Delenn challenges Warrior 
caste leader Shai Alit Shakiri (Hart McCarthy) to 
enter ihe Star Fire Wheel with her. By the ritual s 
rules, whoever is willing to die for their caste, 
w ins dominance for it. Encouraged by Ncroon, he 
enters the circle with Delenn where the Wheel's 
energy beam engulfs them. Shakiri suggests 
sharing power as the beam intensifies. Shakiri 
escapes when he feels himself burning, but 
Delenn remains. Ncroon renounces his caste, 
declares himself Religious caste and removes 
Delenn. He re-enters the circle, sacrificing 
himself to save her. Delenn reconstitutes the Grey 
Council, giving the Worker caste the balance of 
power. On B5. William Edgars hires Garibaldi. 

Delenn views the wounded and dying of the 
Religious Caste during the bombardment of the 
Minbari capital In "Moments of Transition.” 


But when Garibaldi hires Lyla he’s ordered by 
Edgars who doesn't trusl telepalhs, to release her. 
Unable to find work because she isn't in Psi 
Corps, Lyta reluctantly agrees to sign over her 
body to Bester for research after she dies. Earth 
Alliance attacks civilian targets and blockades the 
population of Proxiina 3. 

A rather subtle cameo in this episode was 
Dilht-ri cartoonist Scott Adams' visit to the 
station. He becomes a client for Garibaldi, who 
asked Michael to find his dog and cat (sly 
references to Dogbert and Caibert from the 
comic strip). “Scott is a big fan of Babylon 5" 
said John Copeland. *‘Wc found oul about it. got 
in touch with him and thought it would be fun to 
include him in a cameo on the show. We all had a 
great time. I still slay in touch w ith Scott on 
occasion.'* 


“So from now on 1 guess Ihe operational phrase 
is ‘trust no one,”* 

“No, Trust Ivanova, trust yourself.,.anvbodv 


else: shoot them. 


L'orwin and Ivanova 


No Surrender, No Retreat ★+** 

5 2b IW7, #415 Written by J, Mkhad Slramniki. Directed b} 
Michael Vejar. 

Sheridan decides it’s time 1o liberate Proxiina 


TNt 


A White Star ship crashes Into Earthforce 
Destroyer Pollux as Sheridan seeks to liberate 

Earth from the tyranny of President Clark. 

3, Mars and finally. Earth. The alien races agree to 
defend B5 after Sheridan nullifies their treaties 
with Earth. Londo asks G’Kaf to sign a Centauri- 
Narn statement supporting Sheridan, but G’Kar 
declines. The While Star fleet engages an EA 
destroyer group led by Heracles' Captain Trevor 
Hall (Ken Jenkins). Sheridan opens a comlink. 
pointing oul Ihe illegality of Clark's orders, gives 
his opponents the chance to stand down. Three 
stand down or withdraw, others including the 
Pollux fight, and are destroyed. Hall is concerned 
that Clark will hold him responsible for the 
mission’s failure. Hall's first officer. Commander 
Sandra Ix-avitl (Marsha Mil/man Gavin), relieves 
him of command. Proxiina 3 is liberated. The 
ships Vesta and Nemesis join with Sheridan, while 
ihe Heracles retires from the field and another ship 
stays to guard Proxima. G’Kar changes his mind 
and signs the joint declaration. Garibaldi leaves 
B5 for Mars. 

Asked how closely docs a powerfully written 
scene on paper, like the one between Londo and 
G'Kar in G’Kar’s quarters, comes to the final 
moment as played by actors Peter Jurasik and 
Andreas Katsulas, Joe Straczynski replied. “With 
those two actors, the result almost invariably Imiks 
like what I saw' in my head when I wrote the 
scene. I knew I never had to worry about a 
Londo G’Kar scene, and I always wanted to limit 
the number of distractions in any big scene they 
had, which is why most of them tended to be in 
small rooms—elevators, cells. G'Kar's quarters — 
so nothing else would get in Ihe way of seeing 
those performances.” 


95 




























In it's final year Straczynski turned the focus of the 
show to empire building , and rogue telepaths. 


By Frank Garcia 

After triumphant resolutions to the 
Shadow War and the defeat of President 
Clark in the fourth season, plus a nail-biting 
real-life interlude on whether or not the sc¬ 
ries would be continued, where did BABY¬ 
LON 5 go in the fifth season? The exciting 
external conflicts presented by the Shadow 
War and President Clark could not be dupli¬ 
cated. And so Straczynski turned the con¬ 
flicts inward—accentuating the rift between 
“normals” (also known as “mundancs”) and 
the telepaths and exploring the after effects 
of the Shadow War. 

The basis of the season, in the words of 
its creator, was “Empire building." And that 
meant politics. Most stories dealt with the 
politics between mundanes and telepaths as 
well as the covert activities by the Shad¬ 
ow's' minions within the Centauri Palace, 
activities with repercussions throughout the 
galaxy. We followed, in considerable detail, 
the creation of these problems, its fiery 
apex, and the fateful consequences. 


The new galactic alliance now headed 
by President John Sheridan was given a 
daunting task when a group of rogue 
telepaths arrived and requested permission 
to form a colony. They professed to dis¬ 
avowing violence or technology. Their 
leader was a tall, blond-haired and broad 
shouldered man who went by one name: 
Byron. Played by Robin Atkin-Downes, a 
British-born actor who gave in his perfor¬ 
mances a strong, penetrating presence. This 
telepathic group created considerable chaos 
inside and outside the station. 

“There was so much more story that 
could have fit in there,” opined series star 
Bruce Boxleitner. “It did pretty well. We 
could have gone further with it. Because of 
what happened with the fourth season, we 
thought we were going to be canned, Joe 
had to truncate the epic a little bit to be able 
to finish it. 1 think a lot of things had to be 
dropped to get on with the crux of the sto¬ 
ry" 

Personally satisfied with the story arc's 
content, Boxleitner however, was surprised 


to hear fan criticism on the quality of the 
season’s storytelling. “People have criti¬ 
cized the fifth season as not being as good 
as the others,” he said. “Well, hey, that’s a 
matter of opinion as far as I'm concerned. 
And you know what? In the long run, we 
got to finish what we got to finish. Whatev¬ 
er the circumstances, we did it and we did it 
to the best of our abilities. I thought for the 
most part, everyone delivered what they 
were there to do. I thought it was fine per¬ 
formances. It wasn’t as exciting to some 
people. Other people thought it was. We 
were handed a set of circumstances and 
what they don't realize is that the miracle of 
the show continued in that season. It was a 
miracle! They’re very lucky to get what 
they got! There’s some tough talk from 
Sheridan! It’s a lough business—show busi¬ 
ness. A lot of people, a lot of heartache and 
a lot of sweat went into it and they fought 
for w hat they got.” 

As someone who worked very closely 
with Robin Atkin-Downes, actress Patricia 
Tallman was given—to her great delight—a 
lot of attention. “1 was blown away by the 
amount of work I ended up having and the 
whole Byron storyline,” said Tallman. “1 
was honored to be given so much to do. 
That’s the season where I really feel was 
some of my better work. I was able to pull 
together a lot of what I had learned as an ac¬ 
tor. I was so comfortable with the crew and 
my castmates. 1 kept going to Joe’s office 
and asking questions. All of us actors were 
always going to Joe’s office and saying, 
‘Oh, God, what does this mean??! Can you 
give me a hint here?* And Joe’s always hav¬ 
ing a conversation saying, 1 told you as 
much as you need to know.' Sometimes it’s 
fun for me making acting decisions with so 
little information.” 

As the very imposing Byron. Downes 
was cast after completing a role as a Min- 
bari in the fourth season episode, “Atone¬ 
ment,” and later in the B5 telefilm ‘in the 
Beginning.” “I was so lucky with Robin,” 
said Tallman. “I had a tremendous chem¬ 
istry with Robin. I liked him. He was funny. 


In the final episode, actually filmed fourth season when the series was thought to be cancelled. Sheridan 
heads off to the rim of the galaxy to die with First One Lorien (Wayne Alexander) in “Sleeping In the Light." 














Wrapping up the epic: Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), Delenn (Mira Furian), Sheridan (Bruce Boxleltner). Loch ley 
(Tracy Scoggins, replacing Ivanova's Claudia Christian), Zach (Jeff Conaway) and Lennier (Bill Mumy). 


“Nobody lakes power. They're given power by 
the rest of us, In-cause we are stupid or afraid 
or both." 

—William Edgars 

The Exercise of 

Vital Pow ers *+** 

#41* Untlrn by 1. Mkbacl *1 twrtywML Uiirctrd by 
John Ijftlu. 

Garibaldi meets William Edgars (Efrem 
/.initial isl Jr.), in his Mars home The imlustnalist 
affirms that w hile he and others want to stop 
Clark. Sheridan's military action is the wrong way 
because it'll tear Earth apart. He claims he won't 
turn him over to Clark, but Sheridan must be 
captured and slopped. Edgars tests (iaribaldi’s 
loyalty, sequestering him with a lelepath. Edgars 
questions him from an adjoining room. Satisfied 
Garibaldi is telling the truth, Edgars then reveals 
part of his plan, Psi Corps has become a greater 
threat than Clark who has surrounded himself with 
telepaths in key positions. Edgars fears a lelepath 
elite will take over, ending privacy, and make 
normals second-class citizens. Garibaldi will learn 
the rest of the plan after capturing Sheridan. Lyta 
manages to bypass the Shadow implants on the 
altered telepaths after Eranklin’s efforts fail. 
Sheridan tells Eranklin his plan lor the telepaths 
and orders him and Lyta to leave for Mars. 

Casting a veteran actor such as /.im ha list, said 
John Copeland, was joy for the production. “I 
believe he was suggested by Fern (Champion] and 
Mark |Paladini| our casting directors. We met with 
him and Joe and the rest of us knew right away 
that he was the man for the job. Efrem was set 
many weeks in advance of shooting so he could 
watch a few of the past episodes and also had 
plenty of time to spend with the script. He knew 
his lines perfectly when he came to work." 

With so much backstory installed as part of his 
dialogue, was it necessary to explain to Zimhalist 
B5's plots and situations? "He sold the words," 
explained Copeland. “An actor doesn’t need to 
know all the context for everything that he says. 

He just has to be convincing.” 



Wc teased each other. We could do sexy 
stuff. But it never got awkward or weird. 
Like I can imagine it, if it's someone I did¬ 
n't tike. We're really good friends now. 
We're both organic, Method actors. We re¬ 
hearsed a lot. That's why my best work is 
with him. We'd meet at my house, we'd 
meet early at work. We'd stay late and work 
on scenes and I think it really shows.” 

As we were initially introduced to Byron 
and to his fellow telepaths, and as episodes 
progressed. Straczynski painted them and 
their predicament in very sympathetic 
terms. The viewers were pushed to be on 
the rogues' side while "normals” remained 
stubborn. 

Answering the question why was it so 
difficult for Sheridan or anyone to grant By¬ 
ron's requests, Tatlman explained. “For my 
character, I would say, 'Because we’re lep¬ 
ers. No one wants to give us freedom. No 
one wants us to have the potential to grow. 
Telepaths all together in one place? What 
kind of powers could we develop?* People 
were afraid of them and the whole idea of 
telepaths banding together in a homework! 
is more frightening. What kind of powers 
could they develop that may affect the uni¬ 
verse if you put them all together? 

“Telepaths were made to serve mun- 
danes. That's all they did. They haven't 
done anything to serve themselves. Psi 


Corps was a forum that made sure that 
telepaths didn't do anything for them¬ 
selves!” 

Aggravating the situation was the fact 
that quickly, Byron resorted to more sophis¬ 
ticated and immoral means to achieve his 
goals. “Byron did it in the most unpalatable 
way,” continued Tallman. “He became in¬ 
credibly unsympathetic to the rest of the 
alien races when he started holding hostage 
secrets. They made sure that he wasn’t go¬ 
ing to get it!” 

What's ironic about the fact that Claudia 
Christian did not return for the fifth season, 
is that the Lyta/Byron storyline would ef¬ 
fectively had been the Susan/Byron story¬ 
line had she stayed on the show, according 
to Joe Straczynski. Ivanova would have be¬ 
come romantically involved with Byron 
and Lyta would still be there. Lyta's story¬ 
line would have ended up the same way by 
a different path. 

In the final result, this arc was so well 
tailored for Lyta/Byron, it's difficult to vi¬ 
sualize how differently the story might have 
been had Captain Ivanova been present. “I 
can't imagine Ivanova actually being drawn 
out where Lyta was,” agreed Tallman. “Lyta 
really followed Byron. Can you imagine 
Ivanova not getting pissed off and not doing 
something about (the lelepath situation]? I 
can't! That was the whole thing about 


Garibaldi meats with Efram Zimbalist Jr. as Mars 
Industrialist William Edgars, who seeks to stop 
Sheridan's opposition to Earth President Clark. 


“President Clark isn't the real pm Idem, he’s 
trivial. One way or another he'll be gone in a 
few years, but the telepaths he put in power, the 
Psi C'orp, those will be with us forever. That's 
the real dancer.” 

—William Kdjjars 

The Fac e of the E nemy ★★★★ 

&09 |W, #417 Written hy J. Mirhsel Stracryaiki. Directed by 
Michael Vejar. 

The Agamemnon under command of Captain 
James (David Purdham). joins up with Sheridan. 
Garibaldi, working for Edgars, tells Sheridan his 
lather is imprisoned on Mars, luring Sheridan inio 
a trap. Edgars turns Sheridan over It* Clark’s 
forces. Edgars tells Garbaldi he plans to enslave 


97 






















Bester and Garibaldi during their fateful meeting 
in a tube car in The Face of the Enemy," as 
Garibaldi learns he has been a Psi Corps stooge. 


“Nit! You have no rights. There's no courtroom 
here. Captain. No tribunals no attorneys, no 
justice, no mercy, no fairness, no hope, no Iasi 
minute escape. You will walk through that 
door when you confess and not one second 
before," 

—Interrogator to Sheridan 

Intersec tions in Real Time 

fc 1997, #4111 Y% riltra by 1. Michael Stnc/ymki. Hiredcd by 
John 1 jhu 

Beaten and starved, Sheridan lies in his cell. 
An interrogator. William (Rayc Birk), enters and 
tells him resistance w ilt he punished and 
cooperation rewarded. He is told he must sign a 
confession of sedition against Earth William 
offers Sheridan food and he cats, only to he told il 
was poisoned After a night of levered sickness, 
the interrogator returns and an exhausted 
Sheridan is restrained in the chair. A Drazi 
(Wayne Alexander) is brought in who admits to 
conspiring to subvert Earth's government. He is 
removed and killed. William offers a typed 
statement for Sheridan lo sign, telling him if he 
signs, he'll be freed. Strengthened hy a vision of 


Between the Darkness 

and the Light ***+ 

10 <1* 1997. #419 Written by ], Michael Mnr/tntlu, Directed 
by Da*id l,*iele. 

Crarihaldi is captured and nearly executed by 
Number One (Marjorie Monaghan), for his 
treason but Franklin stops her. Lyla scans 
Garibaldi, taking his memories and places them in 
Number One’s mind, proving his innocence. 
Franklin, Garibaldi and Lyla free Sheridan but, 
during the rescue attempt. Garibaldi is stabbed. 
The Earth ship Damocles’duty officer, Eisensen 
(Marc Gomes), tells Ivanova that some EA 
defectors are still loyal to Clark. He warns her 
that President Clark plans an ambush using an 
elite destroyer force at Sector AIK). Ivanova 
divides the fleet, some going to free Mars while 

Garibaldi and the rebels come up over the rise 
above Mars’ spaceport in "End Game." setting In 
motion Sheridan s plan to liberate Mars and Earth. 


“We're one jump away from more trouble than 
most of you have seen during your years in 
Earth Force and it is my supreme hope (hat in 
all the years after this we may never see a day 
like this again.” 

—Sheridan to the crew of the Agamemnon 

End Game ★ ★ ★ ★ 

lu I.V'IWT. M20 Writtee by J. Michael Dim id 

hy Jntin ruprUud, 

Aboard the Agamemnon, Sheridan plans the 
liberation of Mars and Earth. The altered tclcpaths 
are smuggled onto an Earth fleet led by General 
Lefcourt (J. Patrick McCormack). A Mars defense 
hunker is taken by Garibaldi. Numhei One and the 
Resistance. Lcnnier and Marcus open a jump point 
in the atmosphere, bringing While Star .1 in for 
low level attacks. From the Martian surface, Lyta 
awakens the tclcpaths and triggers their 
cyberwebs. They disable the Aft warships' 
computers. Sheridan's main force bypasses the 
crippled fleet and heads for Earth. Clark commits 
suicide. A note with the words “scorched earth" is 
found on his desk. Senator Crosby (Carolyn 
Seymour) tells Sheridan that Earth's orbital 
defense platforms are turned toward the planet. All 
hut one platform is destroyed. General Lefcourt‘s 
ship destroys the final target. Marcus defies orders 
and returns lo Babylon 5 with the dying Ivanova. 
Uniting Dr. Rosen’s alien healing device. Maicus 
uses the machine lo transfer his life energy to save 
Ivanova. 

“I wanted to make the episode one that started 
moving and never stopped.” said John Copeland, 
who directed. “I think the scenes shot on the 
bridge of the Aggie are my favorite. Bruce and I 
discussed them at great length and our goal was lo 
try and imbue them with the feeling oil the 
quarterdeck of a ship of the tine during the great 


“I don’t wulch TV, It’s a cultural wasteland 
filled with inappropriate metaphors and an 
unrealistic portrayal of life created hy the 
liberal media elite. —Guar d to Garibaldi 


Ivanova faces the Earth Alliance elite destroyer 
group, now equipped with Shadow technology in 
“Between the Darkness and the Light." 


tclcpaths hy infecting them with a fatal virus and 
by absolutely controlling the antidote. As Edgars 
leaves. Garibaldi activates a transmitter hidden in 
his tooth He boards a tube car and Hester (Walter 
Koenig) enters. He pulls Edgars’ plan from 
Garibaldi's mind He also explains what happened 
to Garibaldi alter his abduction The Shadows 
took him lo adjust him to work for them, but he 
was re-routed and programmed on Mars by Psi 
Corps. They made him more stubborn, rebellious 
and suspicious of Sheridan. Bester leaves 
Garibaldi's memory intact. Psi Corps murders 
Edgars and Wade for the virus while Lise 
Hampton-Edgars disappears. Franklin and Lyta 
bring the altered tclcpaths to the Mars Resistance. 

To Slrac/ynski s astonishment, director 
Michael Vcjar took an entire day lo shoot one 
scene. On Mars, when Sheridan meets Garibaldi at 
a dark and noisy nightclub. Garibaldi betrays 
Sheridan and allows him lo be captured. “Thai 
was one of those scenes where we all kind of 
scratched our heads and wondered what the hell 
Mike Vejar was up to." said Joe Slrac/ynski. “He 
shot it every way there is to shoot a scene: wides, 
close-ups. but also fast-motion, slow-molion. off- 
speed. ramp up, ramp down. He even got the on¬ 
set photographer, who had some forensics 
photography experience, to come in and shoot it 
with a still camera the way he'd shoot a crime 
scene. Then we saw the footage cut together, it 
was utterly electrifying. I’ve never seen anything 
like it t understand now why Mike couldn't realty 
explain il lo us verbally, because it's one of those 
things that can’t be explained, only experienced. 
But we've come to Ini'll Mike and his eye for 
directing, and trusted him that he knew what he 
was doing." 


Sheridan, beaten and starved, is interrogated by 
William (Raye Birk), who tries to bully him into 
signing a confession of sedition against Earth. 

Delenn. Sheridan spits on (he paper. William 
offers him one Iasi chance to confess but he 
refuses. Guards remove him on a gurney lo 
another cell. Soon after, he’s placed in a chair 
identical to the one before and another 
interrogator enters. (Bruce Gray), starling the 
process over again. 

“Joe wrote this over the course of a weekend,” 
said John Copeland. “He was hesitant to make the 
entire show just in the cell and the script had the 
material w ith Garibaldi gelling captured by the 
Mars resistance and being freed by Franklin. [ We 
pul this into the following episode as it ran short]. 
But in the end it worked very well. We had 
originally cast another actor as the interrogator, 
and replaced him in less than a day. Because Raye 
Birk was a little uncertain that first day of filming, 
we progressed so quickly with the shinning that 
we were able to go back and reshoot the first 
couple of scenes of the production and improve 
the performance," 


she and Marcus take others to Sector AIK I where 
they find Clark's elite destroyer group, equipped 
with Shadow technology When the bridge of 
White Star 2 is destroyed. Ivanova is seriously 
injured. Sheridan rejoins the White Star fleet and 
finds Marcus at Ivanova’s bedside. Sheridan tells 
her she’s dying. 

For director David Eagle, this is one of his 
favorite episodes. "Claudia gives such an 
incredible performance at the end where she's 
dying. It was also the first time I'd worked with 
Jason |Cartcr|. One of the concerns 1 had was 
w hen the pieces of debris hit the White Star and 
Jason pulls himself out of the debris, there was 
some debate about whether he was actually going 
to be able lo lift her up and carry her out over all 
the debris. But he did and that was like one take. 

“I was in tears watching Claudia in her dying 
scene. I remember saying. ’I want you to he really 
emotional here. You realize you don't have very 
long to live and this is the end.' And what you see 
is what she gave. Everyone on the set was just 
blown away by that performance.” 

















Ivanova. She’s this pow¬ 
erful, strong woman 
who would never blithe¬ 
ly go along with By¬ 
ron.” 

Tallman's comments 
suggest that Ivanova's 
participation would have 
generated even more 
conflict in the situation 
than, say, in the way that 
Captain Lochley han¬ 
dled the crisis because 
of Ivanova's latent tele¬ 
pathic abilities. 

Christian’s departure 
opened the door for another actress to step 
through the station's revolving door. After 
an arduous auditioning process, in which 
actress Tracy Scoggins {of LOIS & 
('LARK fame) sparred with Jerry Doyle in 
a shouting match, she was hired as Captain 
Elizabeth Lochley. a career military woman 
who fought on the "wrong side” of the war. 
Her most challenging assignment from the 
first moment she stepped aboard the station 
was to deal with the tclepath problem. To 
add a personal connection and a reason why 
Sheridan chose her for this job, it was re¬ 
vealed that Lochley was actually (briefly) 
Sheridan s first wife. "She did a great job,” 
remarked Peter Jurasik, “She never tried to 
step into Claudia's shoes. There was no way 
she could.” 

In the middle of the Byron thread, one of 
the series’ strangest episodes was revealed: 
"Day of the Dead” as written by one of 
United Kingdom's most popular fantasy au¬ 
thors, Neil Caiman. Joe Straczynski had 
been such an admirer of Caiman’s books 
which included Sandman and the BBC mi¬ 
ni-series NEVERWHERE that he named 
one of the alien races as "The Cairn" in his 
honor. It took a very long time, but JMS 
first asked Caiman to write for the series in 
IW2. Because he was so occupied with per¬ 
sonal projects. Caiman was unable to con¬ 
tribute at any time during the first four sea¬ 
sons. 

The inspiration for the idea of an alien 
religion came from a very Earthly religion. 


explained Caiman. "I 
suppose part of it was 
the idea of an ’Erev’— 
an almost imaginary 
line around an area that 
allows Orthodox Jews 
to consider themselves 
in their homes when 
they aren't, allowing a 
loosening of the sabbath 
rules. And the idea that 
humans would take 
alien religious ideas as 
metaphors.” 

However, "Day of the 
Dead" is also a Mexican 

holiday on November 2, based on the Ro- 

* 

man Catholic day of remembrance for the 
deceased. All Souls Day. And candy skulls, 
seen on view in the episode, arc also part of 
the celebration. 

In the preparation of writing his own B5 
script, the production gave Caiman scripts, 
videos and answered assorted questions. 
Out of this research, "Day of the Dead” was 
constructed. "I found myself becoming 
more and more impressed by the overall 
novelistic nature of the show. That it was 
doing something quite genuinely new for 
TV,” he said. 

Caiman made very interesting selections 
in his choice of characters that experienced 
the "Day of the Dead.” His reasoning? "I 
liked what I could do with them,” he said. 
"Londo was on his way to hell, and I felt 
like it might be a good thing to give him 
one fine night before it all turned into a 
nightmare; Garibaldi was a character 1 
wanted to write—and Dodger was the kind 
of practical character I wanted to bring 
back: Lennicr came for instruction, and 
would have done well to heed it—and he 
seemed like a character whose tragic flaw 
was just waiting to be notched up a little; 
and Lochley was a blank slate—so I got to 
make up her past." 

Delighted at the opportunity of w riting 
in Penn and Teller as comedians in the far 
future. Caiman said. "The idea was to write 
humor that may he funny then and in con¬ 
text. hut isn't as funny to us now.” 

Critiquing the final produc¬ 
tion, Caiman thought it w'as fine 
work. "Reminded me of the 
feeling I got from the last chap¬ 
ter of Lord of the Kings. A bit 
wistful.” For him. the acting 
was overall good, and in fact. 
Caiman attended part of the 
episode’s shooting. Specifically, 
the scenes with Garibaldi and 
Dodger, and a little bit of Reho 
and Zootv. "They were all— 
cast and crew alike—really cool 
people," he said. 

Asked how did he feel about 
the fact that with his contribu¬ 
tion to the series. Caiman actu¬ 
ally interrupted Straczynski s 


Condo confronts GKar, upset that unauthorized publication of his 
book has lead to Narn hero worship In “The Ragged Edge." 



H Telepaths all together 
in one place? What kind 
of powers could we de¬ 
velop? People were 
afraid and the idea of tele¬ 
paths banding together 
is more frightening. 55 

Actress Patricia Tallman— 


age of sail—in battle, i think il worked out well. 
Hut the entire episode was fun as well as a 
challenge, i love working with the SI X and also 
creating sequences that gave a nod to some of my 
favorite films. 

**i think that Gary McGurk was surprised that 
his role as President Clark lasted as long as it 
did." 


“Weil, Captain, you caused quite a stir. Half of 
Earth Force wants to give you a kiss on the 
cheek and the medal of honor. Ilie other half 
wants you taken out and shot. 

—President Susanna laichenko to Sheridan 

Rising Star **** 

10 20 mr #421 Written by J. Mkharl MranyuU. Directed 
by Tom Dow. 

Acting President Susanna Luchenko (Rcata 
Pnzniak) compels Sheridan to resign his 
EarthForce commission. Besler comes to 
Sheridan, concerned that Carolyn was used in 
the Mars liberation. Sheridan reassures him that 
she wasn't. On Mars. Garibaldi rescues Lise 
from her ahductors. After Sheridan's publicly 
broadcast resignation speech, Dclcnn proposes a 
new economic and political alliance comprised 
of Earth. the Ccntuuri Republic. Narn. Minbar 
and The League of Non-Aligned Worlds. G’Kar 
and Londo persuade a doubtful President 
Luchenko to join the Interstellar Alliance with 
John Sheridan as [’resident. Sheridan reunites 
with his father, David (Ranee Howard). John 
and Detenn marry in a private (unseen) 
ceremony. Franklin rushes back to Habylon 5 
where he finds Ivanova lamenting Marcus' 
sacrifice. She is promoted to Captain and takes 
a new Warlock class destroyer on a two-year 
shakedown cruise. 

Said producer John Copeland, "I think the 
most memorable element of this episode was the 
continuing cal and mouse game that was played 
between the sides—Dclcnn. Londo and G’Kar 
playing their trump card against Earth’s agenda. " 



Londo. Delenn and G’Kar persuade acting Earth 
President Susanna Luchenko (Beata Pozniak) lo 
join a new galactic alliance headed by Sheridan. 


“And I was wondering if they will remember us 
a hundred years from now, or a thousand. Then 
I figured: pmhahly not.” 

“But il doesn't matter. We did what we did 
because it was right, not to he remembered. 
History will attend lo itself, it always does.” 

—Sheridan and Delenn 

The Deconstruction 

ok Falling Stars ★★ ★★ 

IQ/2T/IW7* 0412 rSOti Writlrn by j. Mkkurl \ira< />hskj 

fHmfrd h) Slrf>hm lurxt. 

One million years in Ihe future, just before the 
Sun grres nova, a highly evolved Human (David 
Anthony Smith) preserves Babylon 5*s legacy. 
Downloading the records, he views random 
extracts.. In 22f>2, political pundits Henry Eflis. 


99 













Lief Tanner and Senator [fli/aheth Melarie (Roh 
I lk. Bennett Guillory, and Kathleen Lloyd), 
debate the creation of the Interstellar Alliance. 

One hundred years later, historians Drs. Jim 
Lalimerc. William Exeter and Barbara Tashaki 
(A)astair Duncan, Nick loth and Joanne 
Takahashi), dissect fact from the myth 
surrounding Sheridan. Delenn emerges from 
seclusion to defend his memory. Live hundred 
years later. Earth is divided, half the planet 
wanting to break from the Alliance. Daniel (Eric 
Picrpoint), an anti-Alliancc extremist triggers an 
interstellar war. In J262. the exploits of Delenn 
and Sheridan are mere legends. Brother Michael 
(Neil Roberts), a monk dedicated to finding and 
preserving know ledge lost in the “Big Burn" of 
2762, is having a crisis of faith lie and Brother 
Alwyn MacComber (Roy Brocksmith). await the 
return the Anla'shok (the Rangers). Brother Alwyn 
suggests the Rangers have returned and work in 
secret. When the young monk leaves. Brother 
Alwyn takes out his Ranger uniform and 
dispatches a progress report to his superiors. The 
Human uploads the records to New Earth hy 
tuchyon relay. His human form turns into energy, 
entering a Vorlon-1 ike encounter suit. Out in space, 
the sun explodes as his ship enters a jump point. 

In one of the Iasi scenes of this episode, the 
human archivist who is reviewing the historical 
records of Babylon 5 becomes a ball of light and 
enters a Vorlon encounter suit. W F hat is Joe 
Straczynski implying? Thai living beings in the 
universe evolve from Minbari. to human to 
Vorlon? 

"Lyta, in season 5, mentions that the Vorlon 
home world is off-limits to everyone for a million 
years." said Joe Strac/ynski. "The final moments 
of ‘deconstruction’ take place—la-daa—a million 
years down the road. We have evolved into beings 
in some ways like the Vorlons, but we have 
learned from their mistakes. Which is why the one 
character there has come hack, to take all the 
records of Earth, hut in particular these records, to 
bring to the celebration on New Earth—the former 
Vorlon homeworld—in order to ensure that we do 
not make the same mistakes they did." 



Highly evolved Human (David Anthony Smith) 
preserves Babylon 5‘s legacy one million years 
In the future in "Deconstruction of Falling Stars.” 

SEASON FIVE 
“The Wheel of Fire” 


“They say we'll need allies. In particular, a race 
that is mi far unknow n to us called humans. If 
we have not already done so by now, it is my 
hope that you will work with the Vorlons to find 
these humans and bring them into the battle on 
our side.” —Dukhat recording to Delenn 

In the Beginning *★* 1/2 

1/4/1 wx YVnlirn t>> J. Mu hart Mrar/taUU. Ihmftd In 
MkHarl Vrjar. 

In the year 227K, aging C'cnlauri Emperor 
I undo Molkiri (Pcler Jurasik) sits down with two 


unbroken scripting 
marathon which began 
at the end of the second 
season. “A bit intimidat¬ 
ing.” was his succinct 
answer. 

And what did Gai- 
man think of “The 
Gaim,” the alien species 
named after him? “My 
first suggestion to Joe 
was that I planned do a 
Gaim detective episode. 

I was going to call it 
‘The Gaim’s Afoot.’ But 
he thought that was a 
silly idea. And so did I." 

Viewers consciously became aware that 
the last pages of this galactic novel began 
turning in “The Fall of Centauri Prime" and 
as each of the final five episodes were 
played out. the fates of each of the charac¬ 
ters were revealed. Certain individuals like 
Sheridan. Delenn and Londo had fairly pre¬ 
dictable destinies, but others like Garibaldi, 
Lennicr, Lyta Alexander and G’Kar had 
very surprising conclusions. 

As Londo Mollari. now Prime Minister, 
returned to his home planet to be anointed 
Emperor and he discovered the very dark 
secrets that lurked within the Palace. “It 
was setting the endgame of Londo*s story,” 
said Peter Jurasik. “It was a way to tic up 
and put things in place so that Joe could 
take his hand off of that Londo piece on the 
chessboard and leave it.” 

Throughout the series we were given 
brief flashes, hints and prophecies that Lon¬ 
do Mollari would become Emperor. Bui we 
didn't learn the detailed circumstances that 
lead up to this event until "Fall of Centauri 
Prime.” 

Just prior to Londo’s installation as ihe 
planet's new leader, he saved G’Kar's life 
from the concrete rubble of his dungeon 
created by Ihe Narn/Drazi bombardment of 
the planet. Later, Ihc final on-screen mo¬ 
ments between Londo and G'Kar, two old 
foes whose lives became inextricably 
linked for five years were presented as a 
quiet conversation between them. Londo 
urged G'Kar to leave the planet 
for his safety. As they ex- 
changed their final words, 

G’Kar entoned, “Mollari. Un¬ 
derstand that I can never for¬ 
give your people for what you 
did to my world. My people can 
never forgive your people. Bui I 
can forgive you.” They clasped 
hands awkwardly, staring at 
each other in silence, before 
Londo left the room. 

According to Jurasik. that 
scene was not just ihe final mo¬ 
ment for ihe characters, but for 
the actors as well. “Occasional¬ 
ly. there's so much emotion 
around a scene thal the scene 


i * It was Andreas* and 
my last scene together, 
we were very emotional. 
It was the last time we’d 
work together as these 
two characters. We were 
sorry to put it down. 99 

—Actor Peter Jurasik— 


doesn't play very well.” 
he said. “I was afraid if 
there was any scene, 
that was the scene it 
would happen.” 

Jurasik hadn't actu¬ 
ally seen the final cut, 
so he wondered, “I 
imagine if I were to see 
it, I would feci that it 
was overdramatized or 
there's too much emo¬ 
tion. Because it was An¬ 
dreas' and my last scene 
together, we were very 
emotional about it. It lit¬ 
erally was the last time we were going to 
work together as these two characters. We 
were very sorry to have to put it down. I'm 
hoping it didn't disturb the scene, ll was 
very important to us.” 

Over the years as Londo progressed, 
faithful fans often wondered, in the end, 
would Londo Mollari be redeemed for all of 
his decisions and mistakes? Surprisingly, 
Peter Jurasik doesn't think Londo needed 
redemption. “A number of fans that I’ve 
talked to attack Londo, they say. How can 
he do this!’ or ‘How can he do that?’ He is 
always making every decision that he feels 
is the hest place. He is trying to do what is 
right all the time. He didn’t need redemp¬ 
tion or forgiveness. 

"Bui, was he redeemed? Londo sacri¬ 
fices himself to a Keeper and takes on the 
role of Emperor. With his mind clearly set 
that it was for the good of Ihe Centauri, in a 
sense, he is redeemed. 

“I just loved where Joe finished the char¬ 
acter. ll was completely multi-faceted. You 
were happy, sad. you're the Emperor, 
you're in the bottom, I loved the multi- 
facets.” 

A similar endgame awaited for Lyta 
Alexander. Her future was set between 
“Wheel of Fire” and “Objects in Motion.” 
The Vorlons didn’t simply genetically en¬ 
hance Lyta, they did more. She’s the equiv¬ 
alent of a telepathic thermonuclear device. 

“She's tremendously powerful but I'm 
sure there's limits,” said Pat Tall man. 


Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs) replaces the eye of Ambassador 
G'Kar (Andreas Katsufas) in “Meditations On The Abyss." 



100 


















G’Kar (Andreas Katsutas) finds himself the subject of Narn worship in “Meditations On the Abyss," a Narn 
crowd scene that proved to be a challenging assignment for makeup supplier Optic Nerve Studios. 


“She’s being very careful, especially by the 
end of the fifth season. She didn’t need to 
be in prison. She could have blown them all 
up. She really didn’t want to hurt any¬ 
body—inadvertently. That’s what Joe kept 
telling me. He said, ‘She doesn’t know how 
to control it. She doesn’t want to hurt any¬ 
one else.' 1 thought that was interesting. 
She's much more compassionate than we 
even know she is.’’ 

In a desire to escape Narns worshipping 
him for his role in saving their planet, 
G'Kar purchased his own spacecraft and he 
brought w ith him a most unusual compan¬ 
ion: Lyta Alexander. Because of her tele¬ 
pathic background, no one wanted her ei¬ 
ther. Together, they would roam the depth 
of space, becoming the oddest couple ever. 

“I just thought, ‘Here we are with a 
spinoff!' ” laughed Tallman. “Lyta and 
G'Kar in space. They can do a whole new 
episode right there! I was very pleased 
that I ended lip with G'Kar. What's funny 
is at one point I said to Joe when we were 
talking about where Lyta was going, i was 
trying to get out of him, ’Okay, Byron is 
now gone, so arc his people. What does 
Lyta do? Why doesn't Lyta take herself 
along w ith Byron? Why does she stay 
alive? She has nothing to live for!' And he 
said, ‘She’s charged with taking care of 
his people. And so they can carry on his 
dream.’ And I said. ‘Okay...’ and I 
thought, ‘The one person that Lyta would 
listen to is G'Kar!’ 

“It would be nice to have a sixth season 
to kind of make sense of the fifth season,” 
said Tallman, wistfully. “But since that did¬ 
n't happen. I hope there will be a chance to 
do more TNT movies. Tie up some loose 
ends.” 

The series does not end with a red bow 
tied neatly. The decision to conclude the sc¬ 
ries with new story threads that were canni- 
ly planted even as the curtains closed, is a 
controversial one among fans. Some don't 


mind or understand this approach, while 
others are upset over the realization that 
these stories may never be resolved. 

We saw Lennier betray Sheridan in “Ob¬ 
jects at Rest,” but did he ever get the re¬ 
demption he sought for? We saw Lyta and 
Garibaldi vow to gel their revenge upon 
Bester and Psi Corps for their crimes. And 
what about the Telepath War? In the third 
Del Rey book of the Psi Corps Trilogy, Fi¬ 
nal Reckoning: The Fate of Fester written 
by J. Gregory Keyes, w*c learned about 
Garibaldi’s revenge against Psi-Corps, 
flashback to the Telepath War and of 
Bester's death. Copeland and Straczynski 
have suggested that the Telepath War could 
be seen in a future movie. 

Valcn/Jcffrey Sinclair’s final fate, a 
thousand years ago, is also something else 
that has not been clearly defined. 

In “Sleeping in Light" we learned that 
Sheridan and Dclcnn's unseen son David, 
was training with the Rangers. Bruce 
Boxleitncr reports he’s frequently asked 
about David. “I don’t think Joe ever intend¬ 
ed to see him,” he said. 

Straczynski's clear message was that life 
goes on. It doesn't conveniently stop be¬ 
cause the series is ending or when our ma¬ 
jor characters pass pivotal moments in their 
lives. 

In fact, Straczynski wrote three short 
stories for Amazing Stones magazine. The 
first caught up with Emperor Mollari on 
Ccntauri Prime, the second followed Lyta 
and G'Kar in a post-series adventure, and 
the third is still forthcoming. 

The universe is so well documented 
now that there remains myriads of stories 
that can continue to he told in a variety of 
mediums, such as books, comics, short sto¬ 
ries, TV movies or features. Straczynski 
has indicated that he has the universe 
worked out a thousand years in the past and 
the future. Who knows what the future 
holds? □ 


children and tell them the story of how the Earth- 
Minbari war look place. Inlcrgalactic war erupts 
in 2247 between the two species when the Earth 
ship Prometheus encounters a Minbari cruiser 
with open gun ports. This display is construed as 
a threat and so the Earth ship fires. Circy Council 
leader Dukhat (Reiner Sc hone) is killed and 
Dclenn (Mira Furlan) casts the deciding vote on 
returning fire. Eor the next three yeaTs Earth is on 
the losing side against the Minbari In one 
confrontation, a young John Sheridan (Bruce 
Boxleitncr) destroys an enemy ship when his 
captain dies during the kittle. In an attempt at a 
conciliatory meeting, Sheridan goes with G'Kar 
(Andreas Katsulas) and Dr. Eranklin (Richard 
Biggs) to the Epsilon system to talk with Lcnonn 
(Theodore Bikel), leader of the Rangers hut their 
rendezvous is sabotaged by Londo. At the Battle 
of the Line, Earth is on the brink of its final hour 
until the Minbari takes aboard Tighter pilot 
Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O’Hare) for 
examination and torture. And they suddenly, 
inexplicably, cease their invasion with no 
explanation. In the aftermath of the war, the 
Earth Senate decides to create the Babylon 
Project. 

This V(|-niinute TV movie was finely written 
by JMS and directed by Vejar. This film was 
something of a jigsaw puzzle, as it featured 
sequences previously glimpsed from three B5 
episodes; “Atonement," “War Without End." 
and "And the Sky Kull of Stars" and these were 
moments integrated as part of a brand new 
story. According to John Copeland, "Joe 
|Straczynski| has always had the entire storyline 
worked out in his head. We did slightly 
embellish some of the sequences—on the 
Minbari Cruiser carrying Delenn and the Circy 
Council There was more material shot for it 
that further fleshed out the events that Lennier 
related to Sheridan and Ivanova at the beginning 
of season two. And we shot new material that 
combined with Sinclair's interrogation scene 
that had originally taken place in ‘And the Sky 
Full of Stars."* 

Bruce Boxleitncr noted that he had fun with 
the fact that he was 40 and was trying to be 
“young Sheridan" in his 20s, “A few weeks earlier 
I had a full beard and grey hair,” he said. “1 had to 
turn it all back. It’s not that easy. ” 



“In The Beginning," Earth faces conquest by the 
Minbari at the Battle of the Line, the TV movie 
prequel to the series aired at the start of year five. 


“You're good with diplomacy when possible, 
but you know how to fight when you have to. And 
you speak your mind. Now, whoever'* running R5 
for the next year is going to be on the hot seat. J 
chose you strictly on your background. You are the 

perfect choice. —Sheridan to Captain Dichley 


No Compromises *** 

1/21 1WH. #502 Written ti y J. Michael Slnnimki. Hi reefed by 
Janrl (irrtL 

Just in lime fur President Sheridan’s 


tot 

















DOP John C. Flinn on making Straczynski’s 
SF epic among the best photographed shows on TV. 



Director of photography John C. Flinn and Janet Russ roll the cameras on 
“Midnight On The Firing Line," filming the first episode at the end of 1993. 


By Robert T Garcia 

John C. FI inn's expertise as 
director of photography brought 
him constant accolades on B5 
including two limmy nomina¬ 
tions, but it was all but invisible 
to the average viewer. "My com¬ 
pliment is that after somebody 
sees the show, all they talk about 
is how great the writing was and 
the actors were,” he said. “I 
don’t like to make anybody cam¬ 
era-conscious. If I have to do 
that, then I'm trying to sell 
something other than the words 
and the acting. That’s not the 
right thing to do. If you get too 
fancy with the camera, it dis¬ 
tracts you. While the audience is 
thinking, ‘What is that camera 
doing?’ one of the characters just made a ma¬ 
jor story point and they missed it.” 

In the camera. Flinn misdirected your 
eye from redressed sets and added mood and 
atmosphere with his lighting. (“I like myste¬ 
rious," he said). He set up the live action 
shots for the special effects guys with light¬ 
ing for explosions or glowing aliens, faking 
Martian wind-torn landscapes, framing far 
shots so they could add ten-story docking 
bays and much more. He did this while 
managing his camera crew on three sound 
stages, handling new lighting systems, and 
sometimes working with a director's "ex¬ 
perimental” in-camera effect (like Mike Ve- 
jar's work on "Late Arrival from Avalon"). 

Flinn made a reputation for sheer profes¬ 
sionalism with directors, cast and crew. Pe¬ 
ter Jurasik said of Flinn: “He’s there at 5:tH) 
in the morning and he’s got to make every¬ 
thing work in a real practical, minute-by- 
minute. scene-by-scene job. He does it all. 
He coordinates all those personalties to 
make them run. It’s a pretty tight crew and 
the tribute goes to John Flinn. He knows 
how to keep us all moving and crack the 
whip without making us feel like he’s a 
slave driver. How he does that?—that’s the 


magic of his job.” 

Flinn constantly gave credit to his crew 
and the producers. “You need to have lead¬ 
ership like Doug [Netter], Joe [Straczynskij 
and John |Copeland] and the respect they 
give us to have a crew like we have," said 
Flinn. "This is not a typical crew. I have 
guvs w ho go home and work on their own 
little movies. Everybody here in their own 
right are moviemakers, they love what they 
do. What I receive from them on the set, as 
director of photography, is all that energy. 
The altitude is very positive which is really 
unique, special. You go out there and there’ll 
be four or five people painting, working on 
sets and doing little checks and gluing this 
and gluing that and loving it. We only have 
so much time allowed and we know what 
we have to do and we do it with class." 

From the time the department heads re¬ 
ceived the script to director's final call of 
"cut?," Flinn was involved in every episode 
working closely with both the production 
designer and the episode's director. Without 
his help, episodes like "Sky Full of Stars” 
would never have gotten a go. For that show 
director Janet Greek wanted a crane for a 
specific shot, something the producers never 


w r ould allow, due to its expense. 
But Flinn and Greek worked out 
the simple spot effect that domi¬ 
nated that episode’s otherworld¬ 
ly interrogation, hinting that alt 
the action was taking place in 
Sinclair's mind, and pulling off 
the cash for the crane shot 
Greek needed. 

Director Jim Johnston loved 
Flinn’s look for the station: "He 
does a very good job giving 
Babylon a look that other space 
shows don’t have and we Ye not 
afraid to use a dark look, which 
a lot of space shows don’t want 
to do. but I kind of like that 
dark, sinister look and the shad¬ 
ows created by using it.” 

Once Flinn found the look of 
the show, he still pushed harder. 
"You come to work thinking what can we 
do today to make it better," he said. "What 
can we do to make this look a little differ¬ 
ent. just so it doesn’t look like the same old 
thing you saw last week on the show? I did¬ 
n’t want to name names, but there’s a lot of 
shows out there in sci-fi where you have 
that same stale look. I don’t want anybody 
to look at BABYLON 5, and just see the 
overall, and that’s the way it’s going to be 
every week. 

"I’ve had the opportunity to direct some 
of the shows also, and it’s great because usu¬ 
ally directors have their ideas, how they see 
it, and everybody wants to try to find a new 
place. But I’m looking at things from show 
to show, and I can utilize that when I direct.” 

Production designer John lacovelli 
worked with the DP from the very beginning 
of every episode. The two went over the 
white paper models of the sets as they were 
designed. Flinn worked with his crew to set¬ 
up lighting the sets and once they were con¬ 
structed, the two of them walked the set to 
see what could be added for best effect. 
There were no surprises after the set was 
constructed except pleasant ones. Noted la¬ 
covelli of Flinn, "We love him because he 


102 
















Fllnn breaks in a new director, working with creator Joe Straczynskl on the series’ final show, “Sleeping In 
Light,” directed by Straczynskl to show that the series could meet its new, shorter production schedule. 


always wants more 
sconces and more places 
to light up, which is 
great for us because we 
like doing that kind of 
stuff. He’s always push¬ 
ing the envelope rather 
than just settling for 
what we can do. That’s 
kind of a hallmark of our 
show anyway, 1 think, 
that everybody tries a 
little bit harder. It's a lit¬ 
tle bit more interesting.” 

Once the set was fin¬ 
ished, 1*1 inn’s crew came 
in for the final spotting of lights. “I work 
with my guys as far as rigging accessible 
lights. Coming onto that set. I do all spe¬ 
cials, meaning the etiquette lighting, like if 
there is a vase of flowers. I want a special 
light on that. I pick out things that I want to 
see. I don’t want just a wash of light. There 
are a lot of dippy little things to give us 
depth and a nice feeling to the shot.” 

The BABYLON 5 studio also boasted a 
collapsible blue screen, that saved them a lot 
of time. Noted Flinn, "It’s cut time like you 
can't believe. The technology is just zoom¬ 
ing. It's great, especially for our kind of 
schedule, we shoot a day's w r ork plus blue 
screen and we're done within 12 hours.” B5 
had numerous special effects shots incorpo¬ 
rating film elements into elaborate CGI 
mattes. A lot of people don't understand. 
They ask me where and how big is the place 
that l‘m shooting, figuring it’s got to be gi¬ 
gantic. I love to tell them where we arc.” 
The mattes were so effective that the crew 
never went outside, even for the most elabo¬ 
rate shots: "The furthest we ever got was 30 
feet from the stage," said Flinn. “And that 
was at night, shooting explosions and only 
because we didn't have room inside. We al¬ 
so had a little beach scene. We had an 8x10 
of sand and threw it down and shot Vir.” 


B5 was a testing 
ground for a new kind of 
studio, with a lot of the 
post-production work on 
the premises. “The great 
thing is having John 
Copeland here. He has 
all the computer stulT and 
the tapes to show. We 
have the ability to see ex¬ 
actly what we are going 
to interact with. Which 
makes everything much 
more conceivable.” 

Much of the action 
took place as characters 
moved from one section of the station to the 
other. “We [did] a lot of Stcadi-cam so we 
can go through corridors, and we'll knock 
off two or three pages of dialogue some¬ 
times and it’s a two or two and a half 
minute scene, which is a long time on the 
move. Those are fun things, you're going 
upstairs, downstairs, around the corridor 
and into the Zocalo then into the elevator, 
and it's all in one shot. It's great, you sec 
everybody, you see the whole place.” 

Flinn gave all the credit to his crew: 
"You have to have a nucleus of positive 
people and that's what we have. My opera¬ 
tor Peter Kowalski, Wally Sweederman. my 
first assistant camera man. and Johnson 
Ford, my second, my gaffer, John Smith, 
my key grip, Robert Blair. All these guys 
are on top of it. This is truly a fun place to 
come to. When we wrap on a Friday night 
everybody sticks around and talks." 

Nowadays, Flinn has traded his five 
years of working on sound stages for sandy 
beaches. He has signed-on for THE 
D.R.E.A.M. TEAM, described as a cross 
between CHARLIE’S ANGELS” and MIS¬ 
SION: IMPOSSIBLE, shooting in the beau¬ 
tiful locale of the island of Puerto Rico and 
starring Angie Everhart. A far cry from 
25,(HH) tons of floating steel. 


HThis is not a typical 
crew. Everybody in their 
own right are movie¬ 
makers, they love what 
they do. What I receive 
from them on the set, 
is all that energy. 3 3 


—DP John Flinn— 


inauguration. Babylon 5’s new commanding 
officer. Captain hi i/abet h 1 ochley (Tracy 
Scoggins), arrives. A death threat against President 
Sheridan hangs like a dark cloud over Inaugural 
ceremonies, prompting Garibaldi and Zaek Allan 
in beef up security. A tclcpath named Byron 
(Knhin At km-Downes) asks lor a meeting with 
Lochlcy. Representing a group of rogue lelepaths. 
Byron explains they want to form a colony. 
Meanwhile. G’Kar writes the inaugural oath and 
the declaration of principles. A young man. Simon 
(Timothy hvster), manages to tclcpathically 
broadcast the identity of the assassin to everyone 
at the Inaugural Reception. He dies in the act of 
saving Sheridan, hut the assavsin manages to 
escape. Hopping on a Star fury, the assassin 
attempts to kill Sheridan during his swearing in. 
but Garibaldi, in a second Starfury. blasts at him. 
Grateful for Simon’s help, Sheridan allows 
Byron’s people to stay aboard, against Lochlcy‘s 
wishes. 

Recalling newcomer Tracy Scoggins’ first day 
on the set of the series, Joe Straczynskl said. 
’’Tracy’s first day was like anyone’s first day: she 
was nervous going in. but you couldn't really tell 
unless you looked close. The cast—many of 
w hom had been very upset by Claudia's decision 
to quit the show over a raise we could not give her 
without violating our contract with everyone else 
in the cast—were all very supportive of her, and 
wanted her lo do the best job possible. They 
greeted her warmly and there was a great sparring 
relationship between her and Jerry from day one. 1 
think she’s the only woman on the planet who’s 
actually made Jerry nervous at times, because 
she’s every bit as strong as he is, and she’s 
phenomenally smart, quick-witted, and 
resourceful." 



Capt. Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins) comes 
aboard to take command in "No Compromises." 
just In time for Sheridan’s inauguration. 


“We*re all dying 20 years. 50 years, 100 years, 
diresn'l matter. Whai mailers is what we do w hile 
we're waiting around and how we live out the seconds 

in between. —President Sheridan to Undo 


The Very Long Night 

of L onpo Mollari _**** 

I 28.1998. «tU Written by J. Mir had Sinromki IHrectrd by 
David Eagfc. 

Dclenn is surprised to learn that (ctinier is 
returning to Minbar permanently. Lennier 
explains to Detenn that he teels’ in the way” now 
that she is married to Sheridan. Londo, Vir and 
Zack are at Customs, arguing over the 
impoundment of Londo’s favorite drink when he 
collapses. Londo was not poisoned but 
experienced a heart attack as a result of his diet 
and stress. 

Inside Londo’s dreams, he encounters Dclenn 
as a darkly veiled woman She warns him that he's 
dying. At the Zocalo. he's greeted by Sheridan and 
they discuss the prophetic dreams that foretold his 
death. latndo has surreal encounters with Vir and 




103 

















The behind-the-scenes drama, filming the five year 
saga's last shows , as the cast and crew say goodbye. 



Bruce Boxleitner and Patricia Tallman shoot a scene for “Wheel of Fire,” one of 
the last epsiodes filmed fifth season, an emotional ending for the ensemble. 


By Frank Garcia 

When a television series be¬ 
gins, there’s excitement and op¬ 
timism among cast and crew for 
a satisfying and successful fu¬ 
ture. As the years roll by filled 
with highs and lows, long hours, 
tensions and laughter, when a fi¬ 
nale looms ahead, it becomes an 
emotional time. It's not just the 
end of a creative effort, it's the 
end of relationships however not 
necessarily friendships. 

In the case of BABYLON 5, 
the show has uniquely not just 
one, but two endings. When it 
looked like there was going to be 
a premature end, the series fi¬ 
nale, “Sleeping in Light,” was 
filmed as the last episode of the 
fourth season. Later, when TNT 
commissioned the fifth season, 

“Sleeping in Light” was held 
back for a year, and so the true 
filmed conclusion was its penul¬ 
timate story, “Objects at Rest.” 

For Bruce Boxleitner, filming “Sleeping 
in Light” was such an emotional moment 
because the story took place 20 years in the 
future and told the final fate of President 
John Sheridan. 

“Sheridan was saying goodbye and 
Bruce Boxleitner was saying goodbye," he 
said. “We were all feeling bitter. Some peo¬ 
ple were resigned to it. *Ay, them’s the 
breaks, that's showbiz! We’ve made it this 
far!' 1 know deep underneath, everyone was 
sad that we didn't get to do the full saga. It's 
like any job you don’t get to finish. You 
want to walk away from it done. So, it was 
a strange twist of fate. We all said hello 
again, but at the lime, we all seriously be¬ 
lieved that was it.” 

The Hugo award nominated “Sleeping in 
Light” was, surprisingly, not an act ion-filled 
conclusion, but a very simple talc. John 
Sheridan awakened one morning and real¬ 
ized that his time was short. Loricn's exten¬ 


sion of his life's essence after his fall into the 
abyss at Z'ha'dum was losing its potency. 
Sensing this, Sheridan sent for his closest 
friends to gather together one more time, for 
one last dinner. 

“You wanted ‘Bang, boom, bang!’ ” said 
Boxleitner. “Sheridan just wanted to go qui¬ 
etly into the night. I liked it. It’s so cliche 
the other way. The ‘bang!’ The heroic stuff. 
It’s not real life and what’s truer to real life 
is that sometimes the drama is in (he quieter 
moments. Saying goodbye. Eventually, we 
all have to say goodbye to this world.” 

Patricia Tallman recalled the filming of 
“Sleeping in Light" with strong emotions as 
well. Although she was not in the episode, 
she did hang out on the set during the ban¬ 
quet sequence. During rehearsals, in the mo¬ 
ment when each person raised their glass in 
tribute to absent friends, and calling out 
their names; Tallman was offstage and she 
instinctively reacted. “I yelled out, ‘Lyyyytt- 


taaaaa!! ’ They didn’i mention 
me at all!” she laughed. 

In her recollection of the 
time, the word that best de¬ 
scribed the mood was “frustra¬ 
tion.” “Here we were, shooting 
the last episode and didn't 
know how it was going to go. 
We also shot a cover for TV 
Guide. It was important to have 
that coverage. We were denied 
that coverage for years. And fi¬ 
nally, we get it and we might be 
off the air. It was very frustrat¬ 
ing and aggravating. We had so 
much to tell. And not to have 
the chance to finish it when we 
knew there was a market for it, 
was very frustrating.” 

This story was not just about 
Sheridan's last hours, but the 
station itself. Decommissioned 
from active duty, five miles of 
rock and metal were wired for a 
purposeful explosion. And fit¬ 
tingly, its director, Joe Straczyn- 
ski was the man who turned off 
the lights. “Joe was angry, I think,” said 
Boxleitner. “That’s just my opinion. He was 
bitter about having to end it, so he wanted to 
blow it up. 

“They decommission ships that way. 
They used to sink them. Or mothball them 
and you have a mothballed fleet.” 

This episode had a weird resonance for 
Boxleitner. His wife, Melissa Gilbert, 
starred in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE 
PRAIRIE for 10 years beginning in 1974. 
In its final episode, aired on February, 2, 
1984, the town of Walnut Grove was de¬ 
molished by dynamite. “Michael Landon 
pushed the plunger and blew up the set,” 
said Boxleitner. “And they filmed it. And 
they gave it to NBC saying, ’Thank you for 
ripping our hearts out.’ So, in a similar way, 
it was Joe's way of saying, ‘You know, if 
this is the way it’s going to be, there won’t 
be any going back.’ ” 

When Jeffrey Willerth talked about his 


104 















Joe StraczynskJ blocks out a shot for "Sleeping In Light" with cinematographer John Fllnn, as the cast 
stands-by In old age make-up, the series’ final show which was actually filmed at the end of fourth season. 


experiences, he was sitting in his office, 
staring at his framed and signed copy of the 
“Sleeping in Light” script hanging on the 
wall. “That was a poignant moment. It was 
an emotional day and episode. We were 
very proud of our work. At the same time it 
was incredibly sad. We wanted to keep go¬ 
ing. It was like going to the amusement 
park or the ball game and you don’t want it 
to end. You want to keep doing it.” 

But BABYLON 5 did get its reprieve 
and a year later, as the cast and crew 
reached its final epoch, as the final five 
episodes rolled before the cameras, the 
emotions everyone experienced a year be¬ 
fore. resurfaced in full force. 

"It started to sink in around the final five 
episodes,” noted Boxlcitncr. **A lot of us 
were living in denial, you know? We didn’t 
want it to end! Who docs? Nobody wanted 
it to. But we did know from the beginning 
(here was going to be an ending, had to 
come to grips with it. Certainly, there was a 
lot of bittersweet feelings about it. Some 
people were angry about it. Everybody 
went at it in different ways. It was the end¬ 
ing of something that was a good time. For 
some of the kids on the show it was their 
first time. It was the biggest thing they'd 
ever been in! For myself. I've been through 
a few' TV series so I do know the end and 
it’s not very good. 1 hate endings—but 
they’re necessary. You can’t go on forever. 
It’s hard to look back and say, ’God, I was 
there!'That's alt you can do." 

Boxleitner’s memory of the final days 


was everyone signing memorabilia for each 
other, not unlike the high school rituals of 
signing yearbooks. The film equivalent was 
signing scripts for each other. “We had a 
good party,” he said. “But see, 1 knew al¬ 
ready 1 was going on to doing A CALL TO 
ARMS, so... I was looking forward to it. I 
think we had a week or two off. And then 
starting up CALL TO ARMS, which I then 
knew was going to be my final appearance 
for the scries.” 

For Peter Jurasik, the final days felt 
manic. “You could feel the characters being 
moved — to use the chess metaphor — into 
the endgame and to their different spots on 
the board. And that’s where they're going to 
finish. The work was just engorged with 
emotion. 

“It felt like the final notes of the Fifth 
Symphony being played. The scenes were 
grander and longer, the drama was perhaps 
operatic at times. It was impossible to sepa¬ 
rate this work with the fact that we were 
finishing five years of a relationship with 
the cast and our crew. None of us were pre¬ 
pared. It came too fast. We didn’t say the 
things we wanted to say, or wc said too 
much, or too little, and it was all over.” 

The best analogy that Jurasik could find 
to convey his feelings about the series' con¬ 
clusion was to say that it was “a series of 
endings.” Imagine, he said, saying goodbye 
to your friends and loved ones at a railroad 
station. "It was saying goodbye before we 
got to the railroad station. It was saying 
goodbye at the waiting room, and then 


“Tile paragon of animals. Six Ihmisand years of 
brutality, murder and slavery. An animal 
doesn't do this to its own kind, but they do it 
to each other, and they will do it to us...untess 
wc slop them. Unless we find a way to help 
each other...unless...we...carv...for one 
another." 

—Byron to Lyla Alexander 

The Paragon of Animals 1/2 

IflWIfM. #504 Wntlrn by J. Mir burl StraczyMkL Ditrrtrd by 
Jinrl GrrrL 

Discord erupts among the Interstellar Alliance 
members over promises and details of the 
Declaration of Principles. President Sheridan tries 
to mollify ihc members. On a dislant planet, a 
Ranger assists a group of aliens under 
bombardment. Garibaldi suggests using Byron's 
telepath colony for covert intelligence. Lyta 
witnesses the Ranger's death when he arrives on 
the station, warning of the Emphili’s desperate 


G’Kar. He returns to Cartagia’s Shadow Cabinet 
where G'Kar was whipped. In fils of weeping and 
pain. Londo cries out and awakens in Medtab 
where he sees G'Kar staring al him and he 
whimpers *Tm sorry.,,** tinnier leaves with the 
Rangers. 

In one of the most innovative shots of the 
season, a camera is strapped to Peter Jurasik. in an 
extreme close up to provide u surrealistic view 
while inside Londo*s fevered dream. “Everyone 
makes a big deal about that." laughed Jurasik. “it's 
no big deal at all! 1 would become the cameraman 
They were very excited about if t would be able to 
do it. For me. it was nothing. They merely 
strapped a camera to me. It's very elaborate. It's 
almost like wearing a flak jacket. 

“Il was like a Stead icam hung on and facing 
toward me. I pul it on, walk around and it filmed 
me. t thought it was a lot of fun to do. It was the 
kind of thing you'll like to do the whole day. I 
wanted to pul it on and drive home. Walk around 
with it at the mall! It's very weird and strange and 
I looked odd." 

Director David Eagle fondly recalled shinning 
another scene that involved Jurasik and Stephen 
burst “We’re in Lnndo’s mind. Londo is lying 
down and Vir hovers above him. And then we 
realize he's not really lying down. He’s standing 
up That was the way it was described. J thought, 
how do I do this?’ Wc ended up angling I he 
camera to make him appear as if he was lying 
down and Vir just walks in. Hut Ihc way the angle 
was shot il looks like he hovers in from above. 
Then, the camera rights itself 90 degrees and we 
realize they’re just standing lacing each other. I 
remember Stephen burst saying to me, ‘How did 
you come up wilh this? What made you think how 
to do this?’ He was standing there, watching this, 
because he’s a director loo. I remember saying. It 
was the only thing I could think of that matched 
the description in the script.*’’ 


Director David Eagle's fancy camerawork in "The 
Very Long Night of Londo Moltart,” Miming 
sideways as Vir appears to hover above Londo. 


105 






















at ihc proper time. After interviewing two 
telepaths for potential covert operations. Tannier is 
seriously injured in an attempt to save a woman 
from an attack. Delenn and the others at Mcdlah 
agree that it's time for the Mora Mum, “the 
application of terror." The Rangers gather together 
in Downbelow and they witness Tannier's 
personal confrontation with the man who injured 
him. 

With this eptstnlc. director David Eagle had an 
opportunity to work with actress Tracy Scoggins 
as Capl. Lochley. “She helped fill the void of the 
loss of Claudia [Christian]. Claudia was a strong 
female rule mode) and when we lost that those are 
pretty tough shoes to fill. I think a lot of people 
probably fell that Tracy was not likely to be able 
to do that. She’s always played much more 
glamorous female lypes, not the male-oriented 
kind of roles. She did a magnificent job. It was 
different from anything she'd ever done before, 
and clearly, she managed to conquer it. 

“I think the statemenl (hat Tracy and the show 
was trying to make was why can't you be drop- 
dead gorgeous but also be tough? I think she 
pulled it off." 


Walter Koenig as Psi Cop Bester in ' Strange 
Relations," trying to take custody of rebel 
telepaths seeking sanctuary on the station. 


need for help. Garibaldi asks Lyla to assist in 
recruiting ihe telepath's help in covert intelligence. 
(i'Kar delivers to Sheridan his latest draft of the 
IX'claration of Principles. Lyta approaches Byron 
(Robin Atkin Downes), who is angry that she is 
running other people's errands. With Lyta's help. 
Garibaldi and Sheridan realize the Drazi 
government is responsible for the Emphili's 
situation and exposes to the Alliance their 
complicity The Declaration of Principles is signed 
hy all parties. Lyta returns to By Ton, anxious to 
hear more of his ideas. 

Writing G'Kar's Declaration of Principles, 
says Joe Straczynski. was very simple and easy. 
“There have been moments on B5 where the 
writing has seemed to come of its own accord, 
almost a kind of automatic writing, where the 
characters are speaking and I'm just transcribing 
what they say. Iliat was one of those moments. I 
wrote Ihe whole thing in about 15-20 minutes, 
then looked back at it on finishing, and realized 
that there was a lot of truth in there, and maybe 
even something universally important. That 
happened a lot with B5, where somehow the 
truth—nol necessarily TRUTH, or The Truth, just 
a small truth—would wander into the room and 
end up transcribed on paper before either of us 
knew what was happening. And then it was stuck 
there." 


Changing format: Straczynski tells his saga from 
the point of view of two B5 mechanics Bo and 
Mac (Lawrence LeJohn and Raymond O'Connor). 


them that ii is as dangerous for her outside than 
inside. The attack ends when the While Star fleet 
arrives and engages the invaders. 

This episode belongs tu a very small club of 
B5 episodes where its point of view is a departure 
from traditional storytelling. Joe Straczynski says 
that (here’s actually quite a bit of risk in changing 
ihe series formal, even lor jusl one story. "I think 
it's necessary to keep you fresh as a writer. My 
background is originally in theater, and theater 
survives on reinveniion and experimentation. Take 
a picture, turn it upside down, and you'll notice 
details ahoul it you didn't see before because your 
mind became so familiar with the pattern that you 
only see the pattern after a while, you don’t see 
the fine points. 

"The viewers come to expect a certain kind of 
show- after a while, and if you diverge from that, 
you risk alienating us many people as you excite. 
But as a writer. I think it ’s absolutely essential to 
experiment like that. Sometimes you’ll succeed, 
sometimes you'll fail, hut there's nothing w rong 
with (hat. I'd rather try something unusual and fail 
once in a while than play it safe. And all things 
considered, I think we succeeded far more often 
than we failed." 


G’Kar works on the Declaration of Principles for 
the new Interstellar Alliance in "The Paragon of 
Animals," a script passage that nearly wrote itself. 


“You ever wish you could be out there riding 
fire with the rest of them?" 

“Sometimes y eah... And sometimes no. And 
sometimes. I wonder what the hell I’m doing 
here. All this... it's bigger than you. it's bigger 
than me, it's bigger than anyone should have to 
deal with." —Mac and Bo. the mechanics 

A View from the Gallery 

2.11 IWt. #541$ H ritlm hy J, Mifhid Story by J- 

Mithjcl StramittM A lEjrLm fr Ilium. Ihrntcd hy Jiflrl 
(■fffk. 

When a probe is destroyed. Captain Lochley 
is concerned that a hostile force is about to 
attack the station. She fears for President 
Sheridan and Delenn's safety. Two mechanics. 

Bo and Mac (Lawrence LeJohn and Raymond 
O'Connor), overhear Sheridan and Lochley 
argue over the President's safely. Bo goes to 
Medlah and Mac to C’&C. l^aicr. in a turbolift, 
the mechanics w iiness Lochley and Garibaldi 
arguing. In Brown Sector. Ho and Mac witness 
the firelight outside the station from a viewport. 
While running for shelter, the pair find 
themselves amidsi a firelight and Chief'Allan 
takes them to safely. They meet Byron (Robin 
Atkin Downes) who gives Bo a telepathic taste 
of w hat it is like to fight outside in a Sturfury, In 
the shelter, the mechanics observe a 
conversation between G’Kar and Londo. On 
their way to Red One for repairs. President 
Sheridan orders the mechanics to make sure that 
Delenn enters a Lite pod Bui Delenn convinces 


“He joined the Anla'shok for the wrong 
reasons, because of guilt over Ihe death of his 
brother. He was not looking for a way tu serve... 
he was looking for a way to atone." 

—Ranger Master Turval to 
Delenn about Marcus Cole 

Learn i ng Curve *+* 

1 IN I'em. #5(1* Written bv J. Mutiarl Slrantuki. Directed to 
l>» id Ragle. 

On Minbar, two Ranger instructors. Master 
Turval and Durhan (Turban Bey and Brian 
McDermoit) are called to Babylon 5 and they 
bring with them two students, Rastecn and Tannier 
(Nathan Anderson and Brendan f ord). Garibaldi 
confronts Lochley on her loyalties during the war. 
leaving her angry and healed. President Sheridan 
avsures Lochley that Garibaldi “will come around" 


Minbari trainees Rasteen and Tannier (Nathan 
Anderson and Brendan Ford) In "Learning 
Curve," facing human violence on the station. 



“Would you like me to tell you what I see Mr. 
Allan? 1 see...what is that quaint human 
phrase? ... the end of the line. My people always 
know, 1 cannot tell you why, or how, or where, 
but I can feel it to the very core of my being. 

Mr. AUcn...thts is where it begins to go badly 

for all of us." ¥ , . „ . 

—Londo to Zack 


Strange Relations * * * 

2 2$ l 1 ^ #507 Uriltrn bv J* Mkbitt Strati* nskt llirrrird hr 
John C FUn.UL 

Delenn tells Lochley that she understands 
and agrees with the reasons why Sheridan chose 
her as Captain. Garibaldi witnesses the 
conversation. The tele paths sense the arrival of 
Psi Corps “Bloodhounds" and Hester (Waller 
Koenig). Garibaldi tries to confront the Psi Cop 
al the Captain’s office, but Lochley has him 
confined to the Brig. Because Psi Corps are a 
part of the Earth government, there's little that 
Lochley can do ahoul Bester but Sheridan orders 
her to find a way to prevent Hesicr from taking 
the telepaths w ilhout compromising Alliance 
policies. When a Centauri liner explodes on 
departure, Zack speculates that it was an 
assassination attempt at Londo. Delenn suggests 
lo G’Kar that he become Londo’s bodyguard, a 
task that G'Kar accepts. Bester and his 
Bloodhounds attempt to secure the telepalhs. but 
Lyta’s Vorlon-enhanced powers holds them off. 
Before BesteT can leave with the captured 
tclepaths. Lochley declares the group under 
quarantine for 6(1 days to make sure none are 
carrying viruses. 

In this story. Ixindn acquires G'Kar as his 
bodyguard on Delenn's suggest ion. It seems 











meeting on the plat¬ 
form, and then the train 
starts moving and then it 
doesn't leave and it 
stops because it’s de¬ 
layed for 15 minutes. 

Everyone has to get off 
the train because of a 
bomb scare, and then 
there’s more goodbyes 
on the platform. They’re 
loaded back on and 
that’s what it felt like!" 

The final five epi¬ 
sodes a year later was 
similarly unpleasant for 
Pat Tallman. 44 Actually, 
unfortunately, there was 
a lot of tension w ith the 
producers because they 
were not talking to us 
about the movies, they 
were talking about 
CRUSADE,” she said. 

“They weren't giving us 
any information. They 
weren’t being very re¬ 
spectful of us at all." 

The final five epi¬ 
sodes, says Willerth, 
was more satisfying 
than “Sleeping.” “We 
had a greater sense of 
accomplishment lie- 
cause we did achieve 
the goal. There was a 
greater understanding. 

A different level of pas¬ 
sion. We had now told 
the story that Joe want¬ 
ed to tell. We had completed the arc. We 
had a greater feeling of accomplishment 
and closure to the issues. However, all that 
got lost in the way the producers handled 
the whole thing. It got muddled w ith the de¬ 
velopment of CRUSADE. It was not as 
clear cut or well defined as most people 
wished it would have been. The last days of 
BABYLON 5 were far sadder than they 
needed to be.” 

For Joe Straczynski, the opportunity to 
make “Sleeping in Light” his directorial de¬ 
but was his ow’ii suggestion and his col¬ 
leagues Nelter and Copeland told him to 
“Go for it!” “I have no particular desire to 
be a director, but I figured that the experi¬ 
ence might make me a better writer,” said 
Straczynski. “Symbolically, 'Sleeping' 
would be the perfect one to direct, since B5 
had already pretty much put the lie to the 
notion that in TV the writer cannot be an 
auteur. 

“I wrote the script while directing it in 
my head. By the time we hit the stage. I'd 
already seen the episode finished in my 
head. I just shot what I'd already seen. Of 
all the B5 episodes, this is the one that is 
absolutely what I envisioned it to be, what I 
saw in my head when I wrote it." 


And what did Stra¬ 
czynski learn from the 
experience? “1 learned 
that I should've done it a 
long, long time ago. Be¬ 
cause you learn a hell of 
a lot about your cast, and 
your sets, and the whole 
machine when you’re di¬ 
recting an episode. I 
learned what sets posed 
problems that could’ve 
easily been fixed in the 
script stages, what the 
actors strengths were, 
how to frame scenes 
more visually in the 
script so they play better 
on the stage.” 

In the six days it took 
to film “Sleeping in 
Light.” Straczynski made 
a few discoveries along 
the way. in a scene where 
Sheridan dons his old 
black/gray Rebel uni¬ 
form and steps in front of 
a mirror, a surprising ele¬ 
ment entered the picture, 
as reflected in the mirror. 
“The cross-hatching over 
Sheridan's shoulder that 
formed a cross, for in¬ 
stance, that just sort a ap¬ 
peared w hen the camera 
was put into position. He 
stepped into shot, the 
framing made it appear; 
he stepped out of shot, it 
disappeared. I showed it 
to [DP John| Flinn on the monitor, and he got 
chills.” 

A revision of a bedroom scene with De- 
lenn also added greater meaning and sym¬ 
bolism to the storytelling. In a scene where 
Sheridan and Delenn are in bed together, 
“Ld arranged for the camera to be above the 
bed shooting down, to have it isolated by 
black all around to give a sense of it almost 
floating, that he was on a dark river and 
would follow it to the end,” said Straczynski. 
“We'd planned one other shot of Mira/De- 
lenn holding his pillow in his absence...and 
then it suddenly hit me, to show a second 
shot of that, and then a third, final shot of the 
bed empty except for the pillow, the empty 
bed making the most heart-wrenching state¬ 
ment about losing someone.” 

Straczynski is naturally proud of the 
work on the episode, it was what he wanted. 
“My goal was not to embarrass myself or 
let down the cast and crew by shooting 
something crummy. It was designed to re¬ 
duce millions of people to tears. It did that. 

I did my job, and I’m content.” 

Being “reduced to tears” was precisely 
what happened to “the great maker” and the 
entire cast and crew a year later when the 
series wound down to its final five stories. 


H My goal is not to em¬ 
barrass myself or let 
down the cast and crew. 
It was designed to re¬ 
duce millions of people 
to tears. It did that. I did 
my job. I’m content. 55 

—Creator J. M. Straczynski — 



Patricia Tallman and Jeff Conaway, filming 
on the Zocalo for "Objects At Rest," the 
last B5 show to go before the cameras. 


unusual that these two men. old foes, would be so 
willing to accept being lied to each other, Peter 
Jurasik explained, “They have, not just a respect, 
but a real affection for each other by this time in 
the story. Hiey knew their fates were tied together. 
They tracked each other because they liked each 
other and respected each other as warriors.” 


“It was the Vnrlons. They created telepaths on 
a hundred worlds. Interfered with their genetic 
development. TiMik people from their home 
worlds and adjusted them over the course of 
the centuries, because they needed telepaths in 
their war against the Shadows...” 

—Hymn, to the other rogue telepaths 

Secrets ofthe Soul ★** 

3 04 IWH Hitllrn h> J. MicharlStrttXpuU. IMrrcIrd by 

Inoy Dim 

In Downbeluw, Byron (Robin Atkin Downes) 
is confronted by a linker who strikes him three 
limes. Later, when lurkers beat up a tele path 
named Peter (Jack Hannibal), Byron’s people 
retaliates against one of the attackers and when 
Zack discovers Byron at the scene, he’s thrown in 
a cell. Trapped, Byron is unable to prevent more 
violence by his telepathic friends against the 
lurkers Franklin requests complete medical and 
genetic history from the llyach ambassador but 
they are very secretive and extract a promise of 
confidentiality from the doctor. Franklin learns 
that the llyach have systematically exterminated a 
parallel species, the Ityach-doh. and as a result, 
the birth rate of their race has dropped. There was 
something about the Hyach-dohs DNAlhat was 
essential to their survival. Depressed that his 
people won’t follow his creed of non-violence, 

Lyla comforts Byron. They make love and the 
experience reveals how the Vorjons genetically 
manipulated her and other species, creating 
tele paths as foot soldiers in the war against the 
Shadows. 

“You missed a big part of the story if you still 
think that the Vorlons were good and were really 
there to help the Forces of Light.” said John 
Copeland. “The Vorlons were no different than the 
Shadow's and ultimately w’erc only interested in 
furthering their grand plan, in opposition to the 
Shadows. They represent the two sides of the 
same coin, outside entities trying to influence (he 
growth and evolution of younger races." 



While making love to Byron, Patricia Tallman as 
Lyta Alexander has a flashback of her genetic 
manipulation by the Vorlons to create telepaths. 


“Never, ever, ever trust a telepath. I swear to you 
that I’m gonna have that tattooed inside mv 
eyelids” 

—(Garibaldi to IJelenn and Sheridan 


In the Kingdom okthe Blind *** 

3/11 IMS. *50* WriMm hv J. Stuharl Slnr/)*»lu. Diirrtrd l» 
Dm id Kigk 

When Alliance cargo ships arc attacked, 
Sheridan orders the Rangers to patrol major 


107 



















Damian London as the Centauri Regent in "In 
The Kingdom ot the Blind,'* a scenery-chewing 
performance toned-down by director David Eagle. 

routes. Officials at ihc Centauri I’alacc are 
dismayed to see G’Kar as l.ondn's bodyguard. 

A high-ranking official. Lord Jano (Ian Ogilvy) 
meets with the Regent (Damian London) and is 
mysteriously killed. He's later found hanged, 
an even! that Londo and G’Kar realize is not 
suicide. Later, Londo and G’Kar survive an 
attempted assassination and Londo has a 
strange conversation with the Regent. Byron 
declares that he will seek compensation from 
mundancs because the VorIons created lelcpaths 
to serve them. Addressing the full Council, 
Byron uses their secrets against them If the 
telepaths are not given a homeworid, all they 
hold dearly wilt he exposed. Angered hv (heir 
tactics, the Dra/i attack one of the iclepaihs. 
Sheridan reluctantly removes his protection of 
the lelcpaths. To prevent arrest, the telepaths 
barricade themselves within their living 
quarters. 

"He was very interesting and funny to deal 
w ith.” said David tiugle of guest star Damian 
London, who was the Centauri Regent. ”Hc had 
his own take on the character. I think to a 
certain extent we may have actually toned him 
down a hit. believe it or not. If I didn't pull in 
the strings a little bit, he may have gone way 
over the lop." 


"After 1 denied permission to the telepaths who 

came here to form a colony. President Sheridan 

overrode my decision. Now, they’ve walled 

themselves in Brown Sector.” , .. 

—Lochlev 


A Tragedy of Telepaths ★★★ 

A IIIWN. #510 Wriftrti fij J. Michael SCnnymlfi llifwird by 
1ofi% How. 

With the lelcpaths barricaded in Downhelow. 
and Sheridan occupied with Alliance attacks. 
Lochley calls Hester (Walter Koenig) for help. To 


Lochley crawls through the station's air ducts to 
get to Byron (Robin Atkin Downs), who has 
barricaded the telepaths In revolt in Downbelow. 



The fad that the series 
was ending arrived in 
two stages for him. It 
was first an intellectual 
realization, and then lat¬ 
er, an emotional one. 

"Intellectually, it came 
where it would logically 
come, with the writing of 
the final five episodes, 
which is where I he 
process of saying good¬ 
bye begins [and ends) in 
earnest,” said Straczyns- 
ki. "Those were very dif¬ 
ficult episodes to write. 

The two hardest send-offs were Londo and 
Garibaldi. Both had been there from the be¬ 
ginning. both were leaving to uncertain fates 
[as far as the characters were concerned]. We 
usually manage to stay four or five scripts 
ahead for production reasons, but we went 
down to about three or four ahead during this 
period because psychologically I just didn't 
want to write those episodes. 

"Emotionally, I know the exact moment 
it came home to me. I’d managed to live in 
denial for a goodly part of it, keeping my 
mind and my heart separated by barbed wire 
to make sure the one didn't get the other one 
upset...right up until we shot 'Objects at 
Rest.' There's one scene with Sheridan and 
Lochley in C&C, where he's talking about 
how hard it's going to be to leave, and I end¬ 
ed up on set for that particular scene. If you 
watch the episode, you'll see Bruce turn to 
look behind him (we go to a reverse angle at 
that moment, that's the shot you want) and 
as he says, ‘It's going to be hard to leave, 
one gets used to the place/ he's looking 
right at me, off camera. It was at that precise 
moment that the reality of the thing ending 
just hit me like a sledgehammer, and I left 
the stage at the end of that take." 

Describing the atmosphere at the Sun 
Valley soundstages during the filming of 
"Objects at Rest,” Straczynski observed the 
varied reactions among his cast and crew to 
the event. "It was very emotional for every¬ 
one involved. Lots of tears and hugs—it felt 
like a graduating class on (he last day of 
school, with partings inevitable. Some of the 
cast took it very hard, knowing in particular 
that CRUSADE was coming up 
behind, since they didn’t under¬ 
stand why they weren't all go¬ 
ing over to the new show. But it 
is a new show, and if everyone 
went over it'd just be the old 
show with a new name, and that 
wasn't the intent. Some of them 
went very internal on the last 
few- days, which is a very natur¬ 
al instinct. Bruce [Boxlcitner] 
and Mira jFurlan) in particular 
took it very hard; Jerry [Doyle) 
seemed okay with it, was ready 
to move on; [Richard) Biggs 
had been down (his road before 


and was okay; Peter 
[Jurasik] was raring to 
go, having done Londo 
for five years he was ea¬ 
ger to do other kinds of 
roles; Andreas [ Katsu- 
las] was Andreas, as un¬ 
readable as the Sphinx; 
Bill [Mumy| was pissed; 
Stephen [ Furst | was 
okay with it. 

"There was the full 
gamut of emotions you’d 
expect, especially with 
actors since every actor 
believes that they'll nev¬ 
er get another gig." 

When it came down to the final day of 
shooting, the scene filmed was a group gath¬ 
ering at the Zocalo, where Sheridan and De- 
lenn addressed a crowd. It was filled not just 
with the standard SAG extras but with many 
B5 production staffers, dressed as humans 
or aliens. Although Bruce Boxlcitner didn't 
think facing his friends made for a stronger 
dramatic scene, Straczynski thought so. 
"Practically everybody was in tears, because 
we’d made il a good place to work, and no¬ 
body wanted to leave. We loaded (he place 
up with extras drawn from every depart¬ 
ment; everybody's in there...office staff, art 
and construction guys, wardrobe, makeup. 
They all wanted to he in the scene. It ended 
up adding a great deal of truth because when 
Mira and Bruce say goodbye, they're not 
just talking to a bunch of extras, they're 
talking to the people they've been working 
with for the last four-five years. 

"You’ll notice one guy walk up to the 
doorway after Sheridan, Delenn and 
Lennicr exit. That's John Flinn, our director 
of cinematography for all five years. 

"After that final scene, lots of speeches 
were given, some awards were handed out, 
everybody ate and hung out. It took some 
lime for some of the cast to come out of 
their trailers to join in with the eating, for 
obvious reasons. Again, it was a very emo¬ 
tional lime. I slipped out quietly when no¬ 
body was looking, not wanting to make a 
scene, and let the cast and crew have their 
personal goodbyes. 

"It was tough, real tough." 


Boxleitner looks on as an Optic Nerve artist touches up Mira 
Furlans unwanted old-age makeup in "Sleeping In Light." 



i t The two hardest send- 
offs were Londo and 
Garibaldi. Both char¬ 
acters had been there 
from the beginning, 
both were leaving to 
uncertain futures. 55 


—Creator J.M. Straczynski— 


108 













,1/25 IWK #512 HriUfo by J. Mkhifl Stna^nU IHrrctrd by 

Iill 

Psi Corps Bloodhounds capture a few of 
Hymn's telepaths. Hymn (Robin Atkin Downs) 
contacts Sheridan and attempts a resolution hut 
Hester (Waller Koenig) declares. "It‘s over." 
Garibaldi confronts Hester at gunpoint and 
demands a recorded confession of how he 
lelepathically manipulated him. causing him to 
betray Sheridan. Hut Hester taunts Garibaldi. The 
Psi Cop implanted into Ciarihaldi s mind a 
telepathic block preventing direct or indirect 
harm. Byron reveals to I.yla that he used to be 
Hester's protege in Psi Corps. Telepaths break 
into Medluh and take Ciarihaldi and f ranklin 
hostage, demanding safe passage off the station 
and a homework!. Sheridan angrily declares that 
he will not negotiate with the terrorists. Byron 
offers to surrender all the ones who committed 
crimes if he is allowed to gather everyone 


U 1 thought t depaths were all on the same side." 

—Lyta Alexander 

“1 called you my willow, the strength that will 
survive me and shelter those who follow. Now, I 
need you to he strong for me one last lime.” 

—Hymn to l.yta 

Phoenix Rising *** m 


Penn and Teller as Rebo and Zooty In “Day of the 
Dead,” the Galaxy's funniest comedy duo arrive 
on the station during a Brakiri religious festival. 

together. During the release of the criminal 
telepaths, a tire fig hi breaks out and as Psi Corps 
attempts to take them. Byron orders Lyta to walk 
away. Me and several others commit suicide by 
blowing themselves up. 

W'hcn all of Hymn's followers are taken into 
Psi Corps custody, there's no clear explanation 
why Hester doesn't also take Lyta with them. 
“There’s no explanation for that stated in the script 
hut I can tell you that Hester did not even want to 
try that," said Patricia Tallman. “Hester has a 
sense of the magnitude of Lyta’s powers and just 
doesn't want to try that." In fact, this situation 
served as a starting point that launched their 
relationship into a new direction later in the 
season. 

“I liked 'Phoenix Rising' because there 
were some wonderful colors in the way the 
character was written and things to play," said 
Walter Koenig. "Again, Ciarihaldi confronts me 
and tries to zap me. I think it was a terrific 
scene for me. It was very meaty scene and I 
thoroughly enjoyed having fun with it by the 
fad that I knew he couldn't. I made some 
choices that were not necessarily explicit or 
implicit in the writing hut which seemed to 
work The whole thing with Hester pretending 
to he preparing to die. and Garibaldi raises his 
weapon, and (hen knowing what's going to 
happen, that Ciarihaldi had already been 
programmed. The way that Hester dealt with 
that was fun for me to do.** 


Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman) supports Byron 
(Robin Atkin Downs), leader of the rebellious 
telepaths, facing Bester in "Phoenix Rising.” 


Deleim or even G'Kar had been inside the Brakiri 
zone? Screenwriter Neil Gaiman mused and 
replied, “Sheridan—probably himself. Delenn— 
not sure. There are a couple of great candidates, 
after all. G'Kar—his father." 

Fof actor Peter Jurasik. this episode was a joy 
to perform. “As wondrous and fun as it was to 
have Joe Straczynski write all the episodes for a 
couple of seasons, when Neil Gaiman or Larry 
DiTillin wrote an episode, it was really great to 
have someone elsc's material to do. I enjoy that 
more now', going out as an actor doing other 
people's work.'* 

Jurasik also reported that actress Fahiana 
Udcnin loved coming hack as Adira. “We struck 
up a good relationship," he says. “You can't 
imagine how nice it is to get paid for having to 
kiss a beautiful Italian actress all day! I just feel 
like, 'Life can't do heller than this!' They made 
me breakfast, a eup of coffee, dressed me up in a 
fancy suit, and then I gotta kiss a pretty girl all 
day. And then I get a fat paycheck at the end of the 
day! I must have done something right! 

“I loved that freaky little man who Londo 
meets outside his quarters. I loved that actor! He 
was so weird. There were about three or four times 
throughout the entire series where I acted with 
people who played aliens that 1 honestly believed 
they were truly aliens, These are not actors. These 
are aliens disguising themselves as Hollywood 
actors. 'Dial guy w'as one of them! I believed he 
was from another world when I talked with him. 
When I looked into his eyes, he had completely 
absorbed himself into this character. When I met 
the actor, I couldn't believe how different he 
was!" 


“I think we need a little mystery once in a 
while. Oh. and uh...speaking of mysteries sir, I 
have a message for you. It's from someone 
named Kosli." 

“What’s the message?** 

“When the long night comes, return to end of 
the beginning.” 

—Captain I^ochlcy and President Sheridan 

Day of the Dead +★** 

4 01 IWH, #511 Wriltrn tiv \nl tinman. IKrrrtrd hv Doug 
Ufler. 

The galaxy’s funniest comedy duo. Rebo and 
Zooty (Penn and Teller) arrive on the station and 
everyone greets them with open arms except Capt. 
Loch lev Their arrival coincides with the Brakiri 
religious festival known as “Day of the Dead." For 
one night, those inside a one-mile square zone in a 
portion of the station purchased by the Brakiri for 
the period of the festival, will meet a deceased 
figure from their past. Inside ihc Brakiri zone, 
Londo is reunited with his lost love. Adira 
(Fahiana Udcnio). C'api. Uichlcy is stunned to 
discover a teenage friend of hers, Zoc (Bridget 
Flattery), suddenly appearing in her quarters. 
Garibaldi is greeted by an old friend in his shower, 
PFC Dodger (Marie Marshall). Strangest of all. 
larmier is laced with Mordcn (Ld Wasser). the 
Shadow's agent, who makes a prediction that 
Iennier does not want to hear: that he will soon 
betray the Anla'shok. 

What would have happened if Sheridan, or 


Garibaldi lands on the Drazi homework), seeking 
help from a friend to find a witness to the random 
attacks on Alliance ships in “The Ragged Edge.” 


“All my life, I have been responsible only for 
myself. When I risked, 1 risked alone to avoid 
making others pay the price for my mistakes. 
They want me to show them another way... 
What if I show them the wrong way? What if 
they come to me not because of the lesson, but 
because of the teacher. I worry, TaTzm that my 
shadow may become greater than the message.” 

—G'Kar to la'Lon 

The Ragged Edge a* 1/2 

4 OK IWR. #515 Writlrn bp J, Vkbrl S(n»f/>mki, Dirrdrd by 
Juhn ruprlind. 

Ambassadors are no longer attending Council 
meetings because of the random attacks on 
Alliance ships. In one attack, a lifepod 
successfully ejects from a ship before it's blown 
up. To find the pilot who can provide testimony. 
Garibaldi suggests to Sheridan that he travel to the 
Dra/i home world to locale an old friend who can 
help find the survivor. Upon meeting his contact. 
Garibaldi falls asleep drunk. A terrorist attack kills 
his friend and then three hooded robed figures 
beats up and kills the pilot. Garibaldi escapes 
before Drazi authorities can arrive. G’Kar is 
horrified to discover that Ta’Lon has taken the 


get to Hymn (Robin Atkin Downes), Lochley 
crawls through the air ducts and into the 
Telepath's quarters. She warns Byron that their 
tactics has everyone tense and that if they don't 
exit now, there will be deaths forthcoming. Byron 
refuses. On Ccniauri Prime. Londo and G'Kar 
discover that Na’toth (Julie Caitlin Brown) has 
been languishing in a dungeon for two years since 
the attack on Nam. They smuggle her nut in 
disguise and whisk her off the planet and back to 
Narn. The Drazi, the Brakiri and the Gaim argue 
amongst themselves over who's responsible for 
the various ship attacks. To prevent them from 
attacking each other, Sheridan orders the While 
Stars as a protective force, outraging the 
ambassadors. 

With this episode, Na'loth's fate was finally 
revealed and resolved. To bring her back. Joe 
Straczynski asked Julie Caitlin Brown to return 
for a two-day shoot. The event happened, says 
Brown, for two reasons. “The fans wanted me to 
come hack and wrote to Joe quite a bit and I let 
Joe know I would be interested, on a limited 
basis, to come hack because I fell her storyline 
was just not complete. She was |supposedly| 
killed offscreen from the planet bombing. I said, 
‘If you want to bring her hack and really kill her, 
I'd he willing to do that/lliaf seed was planted 
and then we were in England doing a big 
convention, and he exprevsed that if they got to 
season 5. they would tie up a lot of storylines. 

Mis choice was not to have me die on screen but 
send me off to Narn to recuperate. That storyline 
is still kind of open.” 


109 































4 15'! WT #514 Wnltrn hi J, Mkharl Xtncnniki, Ihmtfd hj 
Mrpbrn Funt. 

At Pm Corps headquarters on Mars, Pst Cop 
Alt red Hester (Walter Koenig) gives a tour lo two 
new recruits. Lauren Ashley (Dana Hrown) and 
Chen llikaru (Reggie Lee) Hut when telepath 
Jonathan Harris (Hex blliott Sanders) commits a 
murder, his movements are traced to Hahylon 5. 
Hester and his recruits departs to retrieve him. On 
the station. Harris uses his telepathic abilities to 
win cash at the casino. In a desire to show 
initiative. laiurcn and Chen compete with each 
other in their search for Jonathan However, in the 
Downhclow, Chen is stabbed to death by a lurker 
w ho has been following Harris, Reviewing Harris’ 
training tapes, Hester and Lauren realize that 
Harris has multiple personalities. In a 
confrontation w ith Harris, Hester is shot in the 
shoulder. Taking their prisoner baek lo 
headquarters. Hester allows Lauren the privilege 
of spacing Harris in the middle of hyperspace. 

“It gave the audience a chance not only to see 
how the Corps operates but to understand Hester’s 
behavior from his point of view." noted Walter 
Koenig. "We get a peek at Hester’s approaches to 
his life and where his loyalties lies. And how- 
strong his loyalties are to his own people. If 
there's any question before this, certainly there 
isn’t after ‘the Corps is Mother’ that Hester has 
feelings that we can identify with A sense of 
loyalty, a sense of empathy. 

"Joe expressed Mime question as how the 
audience would lecl about this episode. Would 
they feel like it was a violation of the approach 
they had become used to. Whether they would 
protest the fact the show was from the point of 
view of the Psi Corps, Curiously, from what I 

Denise Gentile as Lise returns to visit Garibaldi 
(Jerry Doyle) in "Darkness Ascending" and 
discovers that he has begun drinking again. 


Big Brother's POV: Walter Koenig as Psl Cop 
Bester, breaks-in new trainee Chen Hikaru (Reggie 
Lee) in "The Corps ts Mother, The Corps Is Father." 

could gather, from the response I’ve gotten from 
making appearances around the country, it was an 
episode that people really enjoyed. They did not 
feel that it was inconsistent. They were not upset 
by the episode." 

“I said that 1 would never leave you...that I 
w ould he here w hen you needed me most. Tell 
me what you want done. I will make it happen. 


no matter the cost.* 


—Lennier to Delenn 


Meditations on the Abyss 


aaa 


5/27/1WS. #515 Written by J. Michael Stuaymki. [Itrrrtrd by 
Mk hjrl Vtjar. 

Delenn covertly meets with Lennier in 
Downhclow. She sends him on a secret mission 
among the Rangers to patrol the Ccntauri borders, 
to look for evidence that may point to ihose 
responsible for the attacks against Alliance ships. 
On a Ranger training mission. Lennier and 
LindeII (Martin Cast) discover they have little 
oxygen supply in their fighters. To survive. 
Lennier recommends a meditation trance to 
conserve air. The White Star returns to save them 
before oxygen runs out. In one exercise fighters 
dodge among an asteroid field, Lennier realizes 
that Findcll is set on committing suicide by- 
crashing. Hy skillful Hying. lennier saves his 
iraining mate from disaster. Londo and Vir 
discover a "hug" was planted among their 
groceries from a I)ra/i merchant. Angered by 
their invasion, Vir confronts the Drazi 
shopkeeper, who denies know ledge of the device. 
Taking a sword from Londo’s quarters, Vir 
angrily hacks away at the Drazi's carl before 
security restrains him. Londo decides that Vir will 
become the ambassador to Babylon 5 when he 
becomes Emperor. 

In a rare moment of conviction, we 
witnessed Vir take on a sword and single- 
handedly destroy a Drazi’s marketplace. 
According lo John Copeland, adjectives of 
"weak” or "timid" are not appropriate 
descriptions of Vir’s character. “Vir is unsure of 
himself and lacks confidence.” he said. “I have 
seen many people have a moment of epiphany 
about their capabilities and he transformed from 
that point on." 


Delenn hugs I.ondo reassuringly. 

“What...What is this for?” 

“I have never dune that... in all the time you 
and I have been here, and I think very soon J 
will never have another chance.” 

—Hindu and Delenn 


Darkness Ascending 


AAA 


MM IWH. #5If* V\riltrn hy J. Mtcharl Strac/>n%ki. UirntrJ li> 
Jjnci triwk. 

Garibaldi has a terrifying dream of the Zocalo 
in ruins and in which I.yta appears before him. 
declaring that she will tesl the limits of her Vorlon- 
cn ha need powers. Lise (Denise Gentile) returns to 
visit Garibaldi and she discovers that he’s drinking 


again. Despite his repeated assertion that he will 
quit. Garibaldi secretly drinks from a flask 
Lennier reports to Delenn that he’s intercepted 
Ccntauri-codcd transmissions during Alliance ship 
attacks. Just as the White Star is recalled to H5. 
Lennier escapes in a shuttle to discover the secret 
base of the transmissions. Floating in hyperspacc, 
he finds a signal and discovers Ccntauri ships 
engaging in the attacks. He records the attack and 
escapes with his evidence. I.yta visits G'Kar and 
reactivates a deal that was initially offered in “The 
Gathering" when G'Kar asked for genetic material 
from telepaths mi Narns can create their own. In 
exchange for this information, Narn will provide 
for the telepaths' transportation. 

In Garibaldi's dream sequence, we see Lyta 
Alexander’s glowing while eyes as she straddles 
on him in bed. In previous episodes we’ve seen 
her eyes turn totally black. For an explanation of 
the differences between the white glowing eyes 
and the black covered eyes, John Copeland said 
that white represented w-hen ihc Vorlons had 
possessed her and black represented w hen the 
Shadows were interfacing w ith her. 


“In desperate acts of ego we give ourselves 
names, fight over tines on maps, and pretend 
that our light is better than everyone else's. 

—Delenn, to Sheridan 


And All my Dreams, 
Torn Asunder 


AAA A 


6 1IH9VH. #517 HniU ii bt J, MhHjH StniCJytitU. IHrrrltd by 
Goran liiijk , 

Sheridan finally reveals to Council members 
the hard evidence pointing to Ihe Ccntauri as the 
guilty party responsible for the attacks on Alliancc 
ships. Londo denounces the presented evidence. 
Hut Lennier’s holographic recording of an attack 
sluns everyone including Londo, who ihen 
prepares to leave for the homework). G’Kar 
accompanies him once again as a bodyguard. 
Arriving on the planet, the Alliance declares war 
and G’Kar is placed under arrest because he’s on 
the Advisory Council. Unwilling to sec G'Kar 
imprisoned. Londo winds up in the dungeon with 
him. Sheridan worries that a confrontation between 
Alliance members and Ihe Ccntauri is inevitable. 


Londo denounces the council's hard evidence 
that the Centaurl are guilty of attacks on Alliance 
ships in "And All My Dreams Torn Asunder." 

As (he series progressed, the key description 
for Londo Mollari became isolation. He was 
isolated from his friends on the command staff and 
because he spent so much time on the station, he 
was also distanl from the dark machinations of 
what was going on inside the Ccntauri 
government. iMilalion begat ignorance. Doesn’t 
Londo try to find out what’s going on? Doesn't he 
have his own spies? "He does, but ihe problem is 
lhat there’s only so much time in an hour—more 
like 43 minutes—of TV. and to spend that lime on 
inquiries thai would essentially come hack w ithout 
resolution would take time away from other, more 
interesting scenes," said Joe Strac/ynski. 


Book of G’Kar and has published half a million 
copies. Narns aboard the station and the 
homework! now worship him. Upon return to the 
station. Garibaldi reveals his only clue is a button 
torn from the attackers, which Londo confirms is a 
Ccntauri Palace Guard hullon. Franklin is offered 
and accepts an important position at a Research 
lab at EarthDome at the end of the year. 

Prinlucer John Copeland reports that actor 
Jerry Doyle didn’t feel “one way or another about 
what was going on with his character. This was 
what Joe wrote and his job was to perform it 
believably. We didn't talk about it loo much before 
Ihe episode. Hul Jerry and I did work oul a couple 
of things during Ihe shixiting of how to play the 
frustr.ilion of his character losing his edge and 
getting his friend killed.” 


“Well, you’ve made it past the first stage. You 
might just be the Psi Corps material after all. 
Now. let's go home. It’s good to know that 
some stories rlo base happv endings once in a 
while.” 

—Hester, to Psi Corps trainee laiuren Ashley 

The Corps is Mother, 

the Corps is Father aaa 1/2 


110 































By Frank Garcia 

The Optic Nerve Stu¬ 
dios story began after 
the B5 pilot, when a dif¬ 
ferent company, Cris¬ 
well Productions, had 
initiated the makeup de¬ 
signs for all the alien 
ambassadors. The pro¬ 
ducers weren’t happy 
with their work, as they 
were mostly an anima- 
tronics/prosthctics com¬ 
pany and so they wanted 
a change. Arriving for 
the series. Optic Nerve 
swiftly modified numer¬ 
ous designs, notably 
Dclenn and G’Kar. 

“There was a lot of work we really liked 
on the pilot.” said John Vulich, president of 
the Emmy-winning makeup supplier. "It 
was pretty apparent that they were rather 
rushed on a lot of it. It didn’t quite have a 
certain level of finish on it. Their paint job 
had a lot more detail and depth to it. We 
tried to simplify the paint job. To make it 
more practical, on a day-to-day basis 
throughout the series. We came up with 
ideas like using vacuformed briskets, like 
paint briskets, to mask off the 
spots, so we could do it more 
like an assembly. We were try¬ 
ing to do G’Kar more realisti¬ 
cally.” 

The initial notion of an an¬ 
drogynous Delenn from the pilot 
was discarded in favor of mak¬ 
ing Delenn a female. “They 
wanted to go with what they did 
in STAR TREK’s ‘The Men¬ 
agerie* where they had women 
and tried to make them look 
masculine,” said Vulich. “They 
were trying to do the same thing 
with the Minbaris, ‘Are they 
men or women?’ I thought they 
were interesting ideas. The im¬ 


pression I felt was no 
one was pleased with the 
way the androgyny of 
the Minbari turned out. 

They were willing to 
dump that idea. The re¬ 
lationship between De¬ 
lenn and Sheridan is far 
more interesting than an 
androgynous Delenn!” 

In “Chrysalis” and 
“Points of Departure,” 
Straczynski played up 
the intrigue of Dclenn’s 
entrance into the cocoon. 

What would emerge? 

“Joe likes to take you in¬ 
to territory that’s filled 
with cliche and then turn 
it around,” said Vulich. "Or, he’ll use audi¬ 
ence expectations of what they've seen be¬ 
fore. in cliches, and take them in a totally dif¬ 
ferent direction, making them fresh. Placing 
Delenn in the cocoon, you assumed some¬ 
thing dreadful would happen, but instead, it 
was more of a butterfly thing. Joe does that a 
lot. It’s one of his trademarks.” 

As he grew to know all of his “rubber- 
headed” players, Vulich came to admire 
their stamina and abilities of acting under 
the makeup. "Andreas is one of those actors 

Vulich toches-up Lorien's makeup while filming “Sleeping In Light," the finale. 


Caitlin Brown as G Ker's aide Na'Toth, a 
makeup crisis first season when another 
actress got last-minute claustrophobia. 


Will Huff touches-up Andreas Katsulas as G'Kar. 
Vulich admired the stamina of his “rubber headed" 
players, and their skill at projecting under makeup. 


who is very good at what he does. One of 
the keys to an actor being able to act under 
prosthetics is their awareness of their face 
and what they’re doing with it. The produc¬ 
ers consistently hired actors with a theatri¬ 
cal background. I believe there’s a disci¬ 
pline that theater actors undergo where they 
have to develop to the audience members in 
the front row and the last row, and yet be 
able to do the performance so it’s powerful 
enough to reach the last scat and yet not 
overpowering the first row, because nobody 
wants to overact or go over the top. 

"There have been times when G’Kar is 
over the top but the show gets big and sym¬ 
pathetic at points, and Andreas 
goes into areas (hat arc operatic 
but that’s appropriate for that 
moment. He’s done some very 
subtle stuff." 

When Vulich saw Londo’s 
hairdo for the first lime, did he 
think it was funny? Vulich re¬ 
sponded with gales of laughter. 
“I wasn’t sure what to make of 
it!” he said. “The character is 
quite goofy and jovial in the pi¬ 
lot. You started off thinking this 
was a nice, jolly alcoholic guy 
and meanwhile, he was going to 
be the Hiller of the universe!” 

Vulich vividly recalled Susan 
KeJ term art's brief B5 appear- 


Optic Nerve's John Vulich on 
working alien prosthetic wonders. 

















112 


Wayne Alexander as fifth season's Drahk. 

ance as Na’Toth, G'Kar's thorny aidc-de- 
corp, one of the series’ major makeup crises 
first season. “She came down, sal down on 
the chair. And immediately was nervous, I 
did the best I could to make her feel com¬ 
fortable. She was as patient as she could 
be." But, alas, once the makeup was com¬ 
pleted, the panic set in and “she immediate¬ 
ly went to the producers, and said. *1 can't 
do this. I have to take this off.* For some 
reason I think she was very claustrophobic 
and uncomfortable. So we took the piece 
off. And I think she felt very bad. I think 
she was very embarrassed by the situation." 
Vulich recalled that the producers were 
very sensitive to her. 

Recalled Caitlin Brown, who 
replaced Kellerman in a rush, “1 
went in there and there was 
such an aura of panic in that 
room. The girl who had the big 
claustrophobic attack, you 
could still feel her energy in the 
room. I just remember silting 
there and saying, ‘Look, I've 
worn prosthetic pieces! It’s no 
big deal!* But this one was so 
encompassing. It covered your 
entire face. The only part of my 
body exposed to air was my 
lips! livery thing else was cov¬ 
ered including my eyes! With 
the costume, and my hands. 


everything! Everyone 
kept running into the 
room saying, ‘Are you 
okay?!* It took some 
getting used to and I ac¬ 
tually started a yellow 
panic, I said, ‘Oh, 1 
don't know if I can do 
this!*** 

Since the makeup’s 
claustrophobia had ben 
too much for Keller¬ 
man, Babylonian Pro¬ 
ductions compassion¬ 
ately released her from 
the job and as a result 
were left with a casting emergency. Brow n 
had previously auditioned for both the 
Ivanova and Dclenn roles and was well 
known to the producers and casting director 
Mary Jo Slater. 

“As a child I had worn a backbracc for 
three years," continued Brown. “It was a 
fully encasing body brace. I knew if I could 
live through that, I could do this." And for 
five episodes of the first season. Brown was 
Na’Toth. However, because of the enor¬ 
mous demands that makeup and latex 
placed upon her very delicate skin, and the 
salary they were paying her. Brown also de¬ 
parted from the role. 

“Caitlin was amazingly good in the part." 
said Vulich. *Tm sure if Susan did the part, 
she would have been exemplary, but Caitlin 

was wonderful. She’s very boisterous, very 

* & 

alive. She has a very solid and strong per¬ 
sonality. She was very good, if not equal, to 
Andreas in performance.” 

Because Na’Toth was needed for subse¬ 
quent episodes, actress Mary Kay Adams 
picked up the character for second season. 
“When Mary Kay came in, I think she was a 
little bit too demure to pull that part off, we 
needed someone with a little more strength 
behind it." Adams' portrayal wasn't what 
the producers wanted, and so Na’Toth dis¬ 
appeared from the landscape until Brown 
returned to resolve the character’s fate in 
fifth season’s “A Tragedy for Telepaths," 
when G'Kur and Londo discovered her lan¬ 
guishing in a Centaur! dungeon. 


Looking back at his 
Emmy-award winning, 
five year journey with 
BABYLON 5, Vulich 
said that he’s been so 
busy on jobs with vari¬ 
ous television series to¬ 
day. that he felt that it 
would take a few more 
years for him to realize 
what the show meant for 
him. “I haven't had time 
to reflect. With any en¬ 
deavor, there were tough 
parts and parts that float 
very freely. It’s been a 
very good experience for us. As a kid I al¬ 
ways wanted to do tw r o things: Something 
like KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER 
and now we’re working on BUFFY THE 
VAMPIRE SLAYER and THE X-FILES, 
which are NIGHT STALKER descendants. 
I always wanted to do something like STAR 
WARS or STAR TREK and BABYLON 5 
and CRUSADE are those shows. I feel very 
fortunate that those wishes came true. 

“But the show's probably more far- 
reaching in ways 1 won't realize. John 
Copeland told me a great anecdote involv¬ 
ing a young man with Multiple Sclerosis or 
something, at an English BABYLON 5 
convention. They auctioned off a produc¬ 
er’s tour of the BABYLON 5 sets and this 
kid scraped together every dime he had. yet 
someone else beat him out and he was very 
disappointed. He was desperate. They took 
this kid backstage and told him. ‘Look, any¬ 
time you want to come by, we’ll give you a 
tour.' and he was all excited (hat he got out 
of his wheelchair, almost dancing when he 
heard this and John was almost in tears. 
John said he then realized BABYLON 5 
was going to be the most important thing he 
would work on in his life, in the way of 
what it means to people and how it affects 
their lives. It’s like STAR TREK. It devel¬ 
ops a life as it goes on." 

Working on the series taught Vulich 
valuable lessons, “I’ve learned to deal with 
a TV schedule, to be better about decision¬ 
making because there’s no time to vacil¬ 
late," he said. “We have to hit 
the ground running to design a 
character and you're not al¬ 
lowed to second-guess yourself. 
Possibly one of the most detri¬ 
mental things as an artist is your 
own ego and insecurities. The 
more you're allowed to dwell 
on something, the more you 
may water an idea down. Some¬ 
times the first idea is strongest. 
It's your intuition telling you 
what to do. From then on. it can 
be second-guessing and doubt. 
We just have to do it. We’ve 
done some very solid work be¬ 
cause of that. Go for your first 
instinct!’’ 


Optic Nerve sculptor Mario Torres poses with his work on the Surgery Alien. 


* 6 We have to hit the 
ground running to de¬ 
sign a character and 
you’re not allowed to 
second-guess your¬ 
self. Sometimes the 
first idea is strongest 99 


—Makeup designer John Vulich— 


« 


* 






“That's why we couldn't figure out a strategy 
behind the random attacks. We couldn’t see a 
goal because there was no goal. There was no 
strategy beyond alienating everyone in the 
Alliance, turn them against the Centauri so 
that... so they'd attack." 

—Sheridan to Franklin and l.yta 

Movements of Fire 
and S hadow 

4*17/19411. f5IH W Hunt In J. Mkhart Slrariy nvki. Dinrrlrd by 
John C Hinti, III 

Sheridan tells Lochlcy that the Ccntauri* are 
now targeting enemy jumpgates. TTie White Star 
Heel will now engage on any hostile ('entauri 
vessels. Sheridan asks Detcnn to propose to the 
(irey Council to begin a joint Eatih-Minbari 
project for a Destroyer Class While Star fleet. Rut 
she musi go in person to Minbar to make the 
request She leaves w ith Lcnnier aboard a White 
Star hut an attack in hyperspace leaves the ship 
disabled. Vir asks Dr. Franklin and Lyla to 
retrieve Ccntauri bodies from the Drazi 
hoineworld. Londo is abducted laic one night 
from his dungeon and is probed by strange aliens. 
Hut he awakens hack at his cell and believes his 
experience is a nightmare. Ci'Kar manages to get 
them out of the cell. Londo's pleas w ith Centaun 
ministers lo move againsi ihe Regent (Damian 
London) is ignored. Sheridan takes ihe White Star 
fleet to Ccntauri fearing thal the Nam and Drazi 
arc headed for an attack. Lyta and Franklin 
discover Shadow "pods" used as remote control 
devices bv enemies so the Alliance would turn 
against the Centauri. Ihe Regent tells Londo that 
he’s sent all defensive ships away on a false 
emergency and has turned off the planetary 
defense network. 



Strange aliens abduct Londo from his cell with 
G'Kar on Centauri Prime late one night and probe 
his mind in "Movements of Fire and Shadow." 


One of Pat Pullman's favorite memories in the 
making of ihe series were sometimes very small 
scenes like the one contained in this episode. 
“There were small victories like when you really 
felt good about a take,” said Tallman. "Rick Biggs 
and I are supposedly on the streets of Drazi. trying 
to find a hotel. We created something more than 
Joe had written. Joe had written something like 
'Franklin and Lyta try and find a hotel.’ We turned 
it into a whole scene. We had so much 
camaraderie. It’s a remarkable chemistry." 


"We would touch the fact* «»f (i«d, and in so 
doing, become gods ourselves. But a door 
swings in both directions. We didn't stop to 
think w hat we might be letting in.” 

—Lyta Alexander's Vorion race memory to 

Sheridan and Helen n 

Thir dspace *** 

7 1 * 1 199)1 Written b« J. Miducl Slnr/tmki. Directed by Jams 
Sukiiri'H' I min«- 

An enormous, alien object is discovered in 



Ivanova and BS squadron fighters discover an 
enormous alien object in Hyperspace in 
"Thirdspace," B5’s third two-hour TV movie. 


ilvperspacc by Ivanova (Claudia ( hristian) and 
Babylon 5 squadron fighters. They low it to the 
station for examination. Interplanetary 
Expeditions (IPX) sends Dr Trent (Shari 
Belafontc) and Bill Morishi (Clyde Kusatsu) to 
work with Captain Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) to 
learn about the mysterious secrets of the object, 

Hul Ihe artifact’s presence has a fantastic effect on 
Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman) who regresses 
into a telepathic trance and is uncommunicative. 
Sheridan and Dclenn (Mira lurl.in) discover from 
Lyta that the object w as created eons ago by the 
Vorlons. Meanwhile, people aboard the station are 
becoming increasingly violent and eventually all- 
out barfights break out. To prevent total chaos and 
destruction, fighter squadrons attack the object, 
hoping to destroy it. Realizing there’s only one 
recourse thal will work, Sheridan dons a spaeesuil 
and fires himself into the object. He plants a 
nuclear bomb and manages to escape before the 
explosion and everything returns to normal. 

Taking place in early fourth season, 
THIRDSPACE is an exciting stand-alone 
adventure. As a film, several elements resembles 
STAR I REK THE MOTION PICTURE 

*1 call THIRDSPACE Lyta's bad hair day?" 
declares Patricia Tallman, laughing. “She’s really 
stressed out, sweaty or bloody! Lyta's out of her 
mind once again!" What was most vivid tor 
Tallman in making this film, was that it marked a 
newfound recognition and respect from a 
television network. "THIRDSPACE was the first 
movie we shot for TNT. It was so wonderful to 
have the TNT staff around, They had a lot of new 
publicists and their representatives were coming 
down and hanging out with the producers (who] 
were so excited about being part of the TNT team. 
It was great, instead of being Warner Bros’ 
bastard stepchild—which we were—they paid no 
attention to us whatsoever. TNT’ came out and 
spent more money in publicity for T HIRDSPACE 
and IN THE BEGINNING and the series than 
Warners did in four years! It was just 
remarkable!" 

A last-minute filler scene between Tallman 
and Jeff Conaway turned into a favorite moment 
in the film for fans and actors alike. It was a 
successful moment because it was both tunny 
and poignant. It’s a scene thal took place inside a 
lurbotift. Standing alone, Lyta Alexander was 
totally stoned by the gigantic artifact's presence, 
and then Security Chief Zaek Allen walked in. 
Momentarily stuck in the lift and oblivious to 
Lyta's desperate, sweaty condition, he 
awkwardly confessed his love for her. He tried 
asking for a dale, but when Lyta doesn't respond, 
Allen takes thal as rejection and then leaves, 
disconsolate, 

“People keep asking me how did I keep a 
straight face in the elevator with Zack?” said 
Tallman. T said. Because it wasn't funny to 
me!’ People say to me, “Oh. how sad. she’s 
missing the opportunity of a lifetime with this 
man.,.' but inside |herself) she was 
conlemplating on the Vorlons’ influence. I 
thought Jeff did an amazing job. Jeff literally had 


to run it the night before. He had like three pages 
of dialogue. Came in and did it word perfect in 
the first take. He was amazing!” 

For Bruce Boxleitner, T HIRDSPACE was a 
fun film that gave him somclhmg different to do. 
Throw on a space suit and save the day. “1 always 
enjoyed those parts wearing those damn awkward 
space helmets,” he said. “But they were fun. There 
was an exciting battle sequence and where I was 
(lying through it all. That made it different inside 
the artifact, quite interesting ” 

Asked if he noticed any allusions between 
THIRDSPACE and S I- I MP. Boxleitner replied. 
"That’s fine! Why not? Doesn’t matter! As long as 
you enjoyed it. 1 don’t cure.” 

John Copeland remarked. "T HIRDSPACE is a 
different kind of B5 story. It starts off one way and 
then moves into the area of horror. It was tun lo 
play with those aspects and I think the difference 
of ihe telefilm from the series was refreshing to 
the viewers.” 


“It’s called a Keeper. They become part of you. 
They ran control you...but only when their in¬ 
terests are at stake. You'll he free to do as you 
w ish the rest of the lime,..” _ Rt . Rl . nt t( , | Am( \ H 

The Fall of Centa uri Prime * * * * 

III :ti I99X. KM* Written hr J. Mkhart SiraciyndO. Directed 
h> Ihuittljx E» Wjxf, 

As the Drazi and the Narn bombard Ccntauri 
Prime, tjondo frees G’Kar Irom the rubble of his 
cell. He discovers, to his horror, that the Drakh. 
minions of the Shadows have been secretly 
manipulating Ccntauri affairs. They maneuvered 
the Alliance into attacking the Ccntauri. Because 
of fusion bombs planted across the planet. Londo 
is forced to cooperate w ith them. With the 
Regent's death. Londo has the perfect alibi for all 
the recent attacks. As Ixuldu becomes Emperor, he 
acquires an alien parasite, a "Keeper' around his 
neck, controlling his thoughts and actions. 
Ccntauri fighters locate Delenn’s disabled White 
Star and brings her to the homcworld where she 
reunites up with Sheridan and G’Kar. They 
witness Londo’s holographic inaugural speech to 
his people. They leave Londo behind lo a world in 
ruins and rubble. 

T his episode marked the final appearance for 
the Regent. Actor Damian London, said Peter 
Jurasik, “was the quintessential senior member of 
the guest cast* He's an actor who’s been around 
for a long time. When you spend the day w ith 
him. he was an actor who was giving, taking, 
teaching all at the same time I felt it was an 
honor to be working with him. He likes lo play 
things so strange, offbeat and unsettling. That’s 
the way Damian approached the character all 
along. The way a jazz person might play a note 
offbeat. He liked to bend. Damian would always 
take the high road or the low road. He just did 
that naturally. He was just the right person to 
cast.” 


Londo in the courtyard of the palace on Centauri 
Prime, named Emperor but now a puppet of the 
Shadows in "The Fall of Centauri Prime.” 



113 






















Marlin Sheen as the Soul Hunter tn “A Hlver of 
Souls," philosophically the most challenging of 
the B5 movies, questioning the nature of the soul. 

thousands of glowing globes to Babylon 5 for 
sludy. But that's just when Garibaldi {Jerry 
Doyle), now in charge of Edgars Industries, 
arrives to confront Bryson about the funding for 
his secret research. Angered by the 
archaeologist's intrusion into their secret lair, a 
Soul Hunter (Martin Sheen) arrives on I he station 
demanding their property be returned. But that's 
just when Bryson manages to make contact with 
the billion souls from the planet Ralga. trapped 
within Ihe globe. Captain Lochley (Tracy 
Scoggins) is faced with the prospect of the station 
being invaded by the globe's inhabitants, who 
were captured before their death, who’s only 
motivation now is anger and escape from their 
prison. 

Meanwhile, a holobrothel run by Jacob 
Mayhcw (Joel Brooks) slaps a lawsuit against the 
station for harassment and slander. 

Briefly, the Ralgan souls inhabits the 
holograms from the holobrothel but then Lochley 
realizes their true plan is to sabotage the station’s 
reactors so that they, and everyone aboard the 
station, can die. The situation is resolved when the 
Soul Hunter bargains with the Ralgans, to accept 
his life so that others may live. In the end. Lochley 
returns the globe to a visiting Soul Hunter, w ho 
promises their colleague’s sacrifice won’t be in 
vain. 

Philosophically, RIVER OF SOULS is the 
most challenging B5 movie. It questions the 
nature of the soul and what afterlife might bring. 
Martin Sheen is well cast as Ihe Sout Hunter. Wc 
haven't seen him in a SFTV project since the 
original OUTER LIMITS’ "Nightmare " Ian 
McShanc is also well cast and delivered an 
appropriately obsessive performance as the 
archaeologist But the Holobrothel sub-plot, 
particularly the scenes with the "love bat" comes 
off incredibly flat for B5. The idea of a humorous 
"B" story is nice but maybe a different story could 
have been chosen. 

According to John Copeland, “It’s a very 
different story for us. It doesn’t involve space 
battles and bad aliens. It all lakes place onboard 
the station. I think it is a really good BABYLON 5 
story. It's actually quite different. It's got a good 
adventure saga and a very humorous ’B' story. It’s 
very funny at moments." 

The producers were also very pleased with Ihe 
acting delivered by their regular and guest cast. 
"Martin Sheen did a wonderful job.” marvels 
Copeland. “He wasn't really familiar with the 
show and had to watch some past episodes to get 
the feel for it.” Sheen was originally offered 
Bryson’s rote but after reading the script. Sheen 
was so taken by the Soul Hunters, their unusual 
dialogue that he asked for and was given the role. 
McShanc was cast thereafter. 

"Ian McShane. as the archaeologist who 
stumbles across one of the worlds where the Sotil 
Hunters keeps their soul caches, was a really 
good performance," continues Copeland. “And of 
course Jerry, Tracy and Jeff Conaway and 
everyone else is up to their usual performances. 
It’s very good and kind of a change of pace. We 


don’t have a big space battle in this one at all.” 

Asked what is it about Soul Hunters that has 
made a one-episode appearance so popular. 
Copeland replies. "I think the fans responded to 
these mysterious characters who travel the galaxy 
searching for important ‘souls’ to preserve against 
death. The episode from the first season was 
intriguing and left many interesting facets of the 
Soul Hunters unanswered as far as who and w hat 
they were. However, the fact that they arc 
obsessed with collecting souls is a pretty 
interesting notion. 

“This telefilm gave Joe an opportunity to flesh 
them and their order out more. As far as their 
popularity. I’m never sure what makes fans 
respond to one character over another. I think the 
fact that Morgan Sheppard did such a great job 
creating the character that he resonated with our 
viewers.” 


“Because of my grow ing abilities, I can’t 
home and I can’t stay he re... so I may as well go 
with you. It’s ironic. You have to leave because 
everybody wants you, they’re fighting over 
you...and 1 have to leave because nobody wants 

mc ” —Lyta to G’Kar 

Objects in Motion ★**» 

It II Written bo J. Michael StnnyiwU. IMrected 

h» Jrui* Salt ador Tttooo. 

Number One (Marjorie Monaghan) of the 
Mars Resistance arrives on B5 to w'arn 
Garibaldi and Lise lhat they’re targeted for 
assassination. G’Kar meets with Lyta to discuss 
their departure together. To find the assassin, 
7.ack develops a plan in which a going-away 
party will he held for G’Kar to flush out the 
killer. Sheridan offers to help the Mars 
Provisionary Government with a diplomatic 
office. During the ceremony, the assassin is 
captured when his stolen Link feeds back. Bui a 
Nam worshipper of G’Kar gets off a shot at 
Lise who winds up in Medlab. Taking the 
assassin to Lyta, Garibaldi learns that the entire 
board of Edgars Industries sent the killer. When 
Lise wakes up, she agrees to marry Garibaldi. 
Lyta and G’Kar leave the station together. To 
clean out the Edgars board, Garibaldi 
blackmails each of them and orders their 
resignation or their secrets will be exposed. To 
them, he introduces Number One as the new 
head of Covert Intelligence for the Alliance. 
When Garibaldi leaves, Sheridan and Delenn 
take a full lour of the station before their 
departure for Minbar. 

Patricia Tallman revealed a very interesting 
anecdote that happened during l.yta’s final scene 
in ihe series. "During one of the lakes, walking 
away from ihe camera, when we’re walking down 
the ramp towards the spaceship, G’Kar grabs my 
ass,” said Tallman. “1 laughed! Our backs were to 
the camera so they would have seen his hand but 
they wouldn’t have seen my face! So. anything 

This Is the beginning of a beautiful relationship: 
G'Kar and Lyta disculss their plans to leave the 

station and explore the universe together. 


“There is strength enough in one mind, one 
soul to change the universe. Can you imagine 
how much strength there would be in one 
billion souls, ail focused on escape?” 

— The Soul Hunter 

A River of Souls *** 

II 8 1WN Wnttrn hj J. Mitharl Ntracoxiki. Directed by Jane! 
(inch. 

When archaeologist, Dr. Robert Bryson (Ian 
McShanc). discovers one of the Soul Hunters’ 
hidden caches in a dig, he brings one of the 


“What no one has stopped to consider is that 
in a war you need to have a certain number of 
small weapons, a certain number of medium 
weapons and one or two big ones. The kind of 
weapons you drop when you’re out of the small 
weapons and the medium weapons, and you’ve 
got nothing left to lose.” 

—Lyta Alexander to Garibaldi 

W heel of Fire ***★ 

II 4 IWI »<:( Written to J. MwImcI Strac/>toWi- Uiretlrd h* 
Janet (,mk 

G'Kar arrives back on B5 to find many Nams 
chanting and worshipping him. At last Ihe 
command staff becomes aware of Garibaldi’s 
drinking problem and places him on suspension 
G'Kar realizes that he can’t go home cither 
because they want to give him unwanted 
leadership. Orders arrive from Earth to question 
and anest l.yta for terrorist attacks on Psi Corps. 

At the Zocalo. she’s arrested, slugged and taken to 
the Brig, Lochley tries to help Garibaldi with his 
problem by discussing her personal experiences. 
When Delenn faints. Franklin discovers that she’s 
pregnant. Garibaldi asks Lyta to remove his neural 
block placed by Bester in exchange for her 
freedom In a counterproposal. Lyta will use 
Edgars Industries funds to bring down the Corps, 
and in two years Lyta will remove Garibaldi's 
neural block so that he can deal with Bester 
directly. Garibaldi also learns lhat Lyta was 
modified by the Vorlons as a superweapon. 
Meanwhile. G’Kar proposes lhat he leave Babylon 
5 with Lyta as both of them are unwanted. 

After Byron’s death, Lyta carries on the work 
m his name, but is she betraying his benovelent. 
non-violent ideals by wreaking havoc back on 
Earth with terrorist acts against Psi Corps? Patricia 
Tallman explained. "They did violence hut they’re 
not harming anybody. It’s violence towards rocks 
and glass.” she said. “They're noi trying to hurt 
anybody. They’re making statements. It's one of 

those fine lines, isn't it? She’s justifying it that 

** 

way. 

Trivia: The title refers to a quotation from 
Shakespeare's King Lear. “1 am hound upon a 
wheel of fire, that mine own tears do scald like 
molten lead." It is meant to describe Byron’s 
legacy and Lyta. It also applies to Londo. 


Lyta Alexander is arrested for carrying on 
Byron s legacy in "Wheel of Fire." and conspires 
with Garibaldi to bring down Psi Corps. 


114 






















Designer Anne Bruice-Aling on 
clothing a science fiction universe. 


By Frank Garcia 
and Robert T Garcia 

It is said that clothes reveals the person¬ 
ality of the person who wears them. For 
BABYLON 5 costume designer Anne 
Bruice-Aling, that best described her job, 
which was to accentuate and reflect the per¬ 
sonalities of the many humans and aliens 
(hat populated the space station. 

Although Catherine Adair (of MANN 
AND MACHINE fame) was the costume 
designer for “The Gathering," and initiated 
many of the familiar designs, 
Bruice-Aling joined this galac¬ 
tic repertory company for its 
five-year life. One of Bruicc- 
Aling's first design modifica¬ 
tions from Adair’s wardrobe 
was adding that leather strip to 
the front, collars and waist¬ 
band of the Earth Force uni¬ 
forms. 

“Joe has a [series] Bible 
that he wrote that has the 
background on what the Centauri race is 
and w hat kind of people they were, and 
what their history’s been," noted Bruice- 
Aling. “The same for the Minbari. the 
Narns, Earth Force, and Psi Corp and all 
of that. I tried to honor, in some ways 
partially, the kind of silhou¬ 
ettes that had been established 
|from the pilot). What I tried 
to do was gel from Joe the 
most that I could get in terms 
of [finding out] what is the 
strongest definitive look we 
can give to the Minbari, or to 
the Centauri, and the Narns, 
and keep them separated so 
they each have their own kind 
of quality to them. 

“The Centauri became a 
classic imperialistic statement, 
even more so as we went along. 

It stayed that way although 
Londo went very dark, his pur¬ 
ple coat to navy, his gold bouil¬ 


lon to pewter, and his colorful vests to all 
blacks and grays, very rich still, but very 
somber because lie became the dark charac¬ 
ter.” 

When it comes to the Minbari, their 
clothing is very Oriental, almost Japanese. 
“Detenu has that very strong Asian quality 
to her. but she evolves, particularly into be¬ 
ing more human.” said Bruice-Aling. 
“She’s a Goth Asian and in a way that has¬ 
n’t ever been seen before in a very simple 
kind of way. Delenn has made the biggest 
[change| because she went from the pilot 
as being very androgynous w ith the make¬ 
up and even the voice. In the first season 
we tried to make her much more feminine, 
but still no hair, completely Minbari. We 
had the pajamas and kimono and the tabard 
and it was scaled down to fit her. In Joe’s 
mind, this is a fairy tale and she’s the 
princess.” 

It takes a special kind of actor to play an 
alien. Elaborate facial prosthetics added a 
burden to their performances but there’s al¬ 
so the clothes, which very often were cum¬ 
bersome, hot and heavy. 

A tolerant actor such as Andreas Katsu- 
las made the best use of these two burdens. 
Bruice-Aling noted. “| Andreas| always told 
me that he loves it because he can’t possi¬ 
bly be Andreas anymore. It makes him 


Bruce Boxleitner and Claudia Christian wearing the 
station's new uniform design season four, once B5 
declared its independence from Earlhforce. 


stand a certain way and it makes him carry 
himself a certain way. 

“Actually, Mira and Peter have also been 
like that. I’m fortunate that the three alien 
characters that I work with who have to 
deal with the most period or heavily laden 
kinds of stuff have appreciated it. Peter al¬ 
ways used to tell me, ‘Just give me more! 
The more gunk I’ve got on me the more I 
understand who Londo is.”’ 

In “Ceremonies of Light and Dark” the 
command staff received sleek, black and 
grey uniforms. The new uniforms were a 
symbol of independence against President 
Clark’s evil puppetry. “Joe really wanted 
the uniforms to have a rebel-tike quality." 
explained Bruice-Aling. “It’s because 
they are going through a very, very dark 
time. The black came straight from Joe, It 
was always in his mind that they would 
be forceful. What I did with it 
was to take that idea and try to 
keep it not so far afield from 
the Earlhforce uniforms." 

Ultimately, working on the se¬ 
ries was satisfying for Bruicc-AI- 
ing. “They gave me a lot of liber¬ 
ty in terms of what I did. There 
was an infinite amount of trust in 
me in terms of fabric choices and 
combinations and the fact that 
the decisions that we made as a 
wardrobe department. We had a 
pretty good track record, but as 
far as making decisions and char¬ 
acter development and all that, 1 
didn't make a move without hav¬ 
ing chats with Joe about it.” □ 


Andreas Katsulas and Mary Kay Adams as Na’Toth. Besides the makeup trials, 
Bruice-Aling noted that the Narn costumes were cumbersome, hot and heavy. 


I , v; 


Bruice- 
Ai ling 

















can happen! Andreas was jusi goofing.” 

“So, what do you think?" 

“It’s beautiful, I really hud no idea." 

“Yes. it's good lo hv home.” 

“Home. During the war, if you lotd me someday 
I'd call this place home, I've said you were 
crazy. Hut, now...it feels right ” 

—Delenn and Sheridan, arriving at the 
new Alliance HQ at Ibzanor 

<)b jErrs at Rest **** 

11 IN IWN. #522 Writtrq by J. Mtrlurl Stoivtntki. Itim ird 
by John I i*[xml 

Sheridan paces in C&C just as he prepares to 
leave Babylon 5 for their permanent Alliance 
headquarters at Minhar. Ta'Lon finds a message 
from G'Kar, appointing him as the new Narn 
ambassador, f ranklin picks Dr. Hobbes (Jennifer 
Butgubin) as his replacement in Medluh. On Mars, 
Garibaldi appoints a group of troubleinaking 
middle managers as the new Board of Edgars 
Industries. Sheridan and Delenn. now with 
Lennier, depart from Babylon 5 in an emotional, 
public farewell. During their journey to Minhar. an 
accident traps Sheridan and a Ranger in a room 
tilling with toxic gas. tinnier hesitates from 
opening the door and runs away. But Sheridan 
uses a Minbari fighting pike to save his life. 
Ashamed by his betrayal, tinnier escapes in a 
shuttle p«*d. On Minhar, Sheridan and Delenn are 
surprised to find Emperor Mol lari waiting for 
them. During dinner, he gives them a sealed, 
ancient Centauri vase, which apparently contains a 
dormant Keeper, to be given lo their son on his 
I Nth birthday. Lennier calls Delenn and expresses 
sorrow for his actions hut vows that one day he 
W'ill return, redeemed of his actions. In the middle 
of the night, unable to sleep, Sheridan records a 
message for his future son. 

Fhe mood on the set was nostalgic and a little 
sad. Phis was the end of something that we all had 
invested quite a hit in." said producer and this 
episode's director. John Copeland. "We all knew 
that we were really at the end this time, as 
opposed to the end of Season Four, where we 
thought we probably weren’t coming back. And 
the storyline of the episode was about folks 
leaving and others staying and carrying on. Which 
was also w hat was going to happen in reality—as 
many ol the crew would be staying around for 
t KUSADE. but others would be moving on. 

‘ At the same time everyone had a really good 
feeling as well, as we had accomplished what we 
set out to do—tell a live-year story for television 
and we had succeeded regardless of our detractors 
and other hurdles and obstacles along the way. We 
had become an extended family. We'd always 
have our experience to share down the years and 
I Id episodes and five TV movies." 

Note: The quote lines above were actually 
scripted, but a decision lo cut them was made and 
the music score underpins the arrival scene 
instead. 

Delenn and Sheridan arriving as the New Alliance 
Headquarters at Tuzanor in ‘Objects At Rest," the 
last episode of the series filmed for Season Five. 


The series ends: Sheridan and Delenn watch the 
sun rise in “Sleeping In Light," the final episode 
of the series, actually filmed Fourth Season. 


“BabyIon 5 was the Iasi of the Babylon stations. 

I here would never lie another. It changed the 
future and it changed us. It taught us that we 
have to create the fulure...or others will do it 
for us. It taught us that we have lo care for one 
another because if we doa'L..who will? And, 
that true strength sometimes comes from the 
most unlikely places. Mostly, though. I think it 
gave us hope that there can always hv new 
beginnings...even for people like us.” 

—EnfilVha Susan Ivanova's closing narrative 

Sleeping in Light **** 

II 25 #523 i422l Hritfm hv J + Midud Sinc/iuU, 

Dimlrd by J. Mitharl Siracnmki. 

In 22SI. President Sheridan awakens one 
morning and feels his time has grown short. Delenn 
sends our letters to his closest friends for a reunion. 
The Rangers deliver the messages to Garibaldi and 
franklin on Mars. General Susan Ivanova on Earth 
and Centauri Emperor Vir Cotto, summoning them 
to Minhar. At the banquet, each pay tribute to 
absent friends, IX*lent) offers the job of Hntil'zha 
(Ranger One) to Ivanova and she accepts. After an 
emotional farewell. Sheridan leaves Delenn for 
Babylon 5. Sheridan is dismayed to discover that 
the station is being decommissioned since their 
work has outlived the station’s usefulness. 

1 leading i>ut for Coriana h in a White Star, Sheridan 
prepares himself hv his oncoming death. He is greeted 
by his old friend. Lorien. A brilliant (lash of light 
brightens ;ind darkens in the fwceship’s cabin. 

Sheridan s triends attend to the final ceremony of 
Babylon 5‘scxpkwive destruction. 

"Toward the end of season four the possibility of 
a fifth season was raised, though it was a distant 
hope," recalled Joe Stracvyaski "We d have to shoot 
in six days instead of seven. Some on the crew’ said it 
couldn't he done, some said it wouldn't make any 
difference because on nine days out of ten we 
wrapped early. You take thtise one-two hours per day 
that you wrap early, pul them together, and ta-da. 
you’ve got a full shooting day, 

“So 1 told I>Hig and John that I would shoot Sil' in 
six days, to show it could he done. It I, a first-time 
director, could shoot it successfully in six days, anybody 
amid. It wax a risky thing to do. but I did it anyway. 

Doug and John asked several times if I wanted to lake 
that risk, but I have a simple phiktsophy that to live is to 
risk, it s unavoidable. It added an exlra layer of pressure 
to the job. hut you just take that .irxJ you move on." 


“Listen...No birds, no animals, no voices, no 
machines, no insects, starships or music. You are 
hearing the sounds or a dead world—a murdered 
world..A test. Can you imagine? All this for a 

—Technomage Galen to Sheridan 


prototype warships, the Victory and the Excalibur. 
He has an encounter with Galen, a Technomage 
(Peter Woodward), who shows him the dead world 
of Daltron 7. In the demonstration of the new 
tighter craft, Sheridan and Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) 
learn that to use the main guns, the ship has to 
recharge for one minute, leaving the ship 
defenseless during battle. 

When Sheridan realizes that the Drakh, the 
Shadow's minions, are about to attack Earlh with a 
Shadow cloud left over from the Shadow War, he 
alerts Earth's defenses. Helping him on the mission 
are Durenna (Carrie Dobro). an alien thief who is 
the last of her race, and Captain Anderson (Tony 
Todd), an Earth Force commander who takes the 
helm of the Victory. When the Drakh arrives to 
attack Earth, a fierce battle ensues. The Victory is 
destroyed in a moment that bought Excalibur the 
extra lime it needed to blast the Shadow cloud and 
prevent Earth's destruction. But a heavy price is 
paid: the enemies dropped a biologically 
engineered plague, a virus that will kill everyone on 
the planet within five years unless a cure is found. 
Hie Excalibur now becomes a research vessel with 
a mission to scour the galaxy for the cure. 

A C A1,1, FC>R ARMS is what John Copeland 
calls "a transition film" between BABYLON 5 and 
the new series CRUSADE starring Gary Cole. Carrie 
Dobro and Peter Woodward are two characters 
introduced here who are CRUSADE castmemhers 


A Call for arms 


*** 1/2 


I A W \% ritifu by J. Midud Siraefimki. Uitrcicd h* 

Mir had \>jar. 

Five years after leaving BABYLON 5 for 
Minbar headquarters. President Sheridan (Bruce 
Boxlcitner) inspects two of the Alliance's newest 


The Drakh are back in "A Call To Arms," the TV 
movie that finked BABYLON 5 to followup series 

CRUSADE, set five years after the end of B5. 

Well-written and directed, A CALL FOR 
ARMS also presents a new composer, Evan Chen, 
to the B5 mythos. His compositions bring a very 
welcome change and new excitement to the film. 
The most intriguing character is unquestionably 
Peter Woodward's portrayal of Galen, a 
lechnnmage. His demeanor, his British descent, 
presents a mysterious, alluring quality lo the 
character. Galen's presentation of a dead world to 
President Sheridan is haunting and serves well to 
demonstrate the character's powers. 

As Dureena Nafeel, Carrie Dobro also brings 
an exotic flavor to her character and her 
personality adds to the ensemble. 

John Copeland said that all aspects of this film 
interested him. "I looked forward to what Joe was 
going to do storywise,” he says, “lie and I had long 
discussions on the evolution of the Excalibur, In 
fact, there were several months of design that we 
went through before we arrived at the finished 
look. Joe wanted snmclhing that would have a 
distinctive silhouette and look Very cool. We were 
also interested in taking the visual effects to a 
different level. Make them leel different from what 
we hail done on B5. That process look a while to 
get to. hut I think we were finally really hilling our 
stride in the later episodes of CRUSADE. Also, the 
composer was a challenge. We found him from 
listening to his demo that was submitted to us for 
consideration. Joe was trying a different style of 
storytelling and a new story. We wanted a new look 
and a new sound to go along with that." 


116 

















I 


: 


i 

! 


4 


* 


• i 



i 











With customary wit , style and panache , the saga's 
creator reveals that there's “life” after BABYLON 5. 



Series creator J. Michael ("Just call me Joe”) Straczynski, with OOP John 
(right), directing BS's penultimate show “Sleeping In Light,” telling it like 


By Karla G. Von Hubert 

J. Michael Straczynski. pro¬ 
lific writer, enthusiastic vision¬ 
ary and self-described “pain in 
the ass," held sway at last year’s 
San Diego Comicon by running 
a skillfully edited trailer featur¬ 
ing scenes from BABYLON 5 
cut to the choral music from 
THE PHANTOM MENACE. 

Straczynski (“just call me 
Joe, I can’t even pronounce 
‘Mr. Straczynski’") is a prickly, 
sarcastic, occasionally rude 
man who’s not above making 
fun of the fans who ask him 
questions. His talk was liberally 
peppered with comments about 
TNT (“morons”) and his reac¬ 
tion to their treatment of his 
show. Anyone who’s ever annoyed him is 
fair game for his vitriolic attacks. But he’s 
an undeniable talent and has left science 
fiction fans with a marvelous legacy of in- 
temally-consistent shows. 

Where did Warner Bros stand regarding 
the controversy over TNT dumping B5 fol¬ 
low-up CRUSADE? Joe said that they 
stand where they usually do—aside. 
Straczynski refused to elaborate further on 
his relationship with the studio or the rea¬ 
sons for TNT refusing to pick up CRU¬ 
SADE for a full year. However, if his talc 
about a script meeting he had with TNT is 
any indication, the reasons are apparent. 

He explained that there are two TNTs: 
one in Hollywood, one in Atlanta. In his 
words: “LA understands creativity, Atlanta 
does not." Some of Atlanta’s suggestions: 
could Joe pul in a character whose first con¬ 
tact protocol is to have sex with aliens to 
understand them better? (“I’ve never yet 
had sex that lead to better understanding”). 
Straczynski said this was typical of the 
thinking at TNT. 

Joe fielded questions about his life’s 
work, BABYLON 5, Someone asked for 
details about the infamous “birth of B5 in 


the shower” story. And another wonderered 
where was that magical bible kept through¬ 
out the show’s run? 

“When I’m naked in the shower, 1 only 
think big thoughts.” He had an idea for an 
epic scries about space battles, alien inva¬ 
sions, etc. And another idea for a smaller, 
intimate story set on a space station. In the 
shower that day "I realized, shit, they're the 
same story!” He decided to use one to com¬ 
ment on the other; that is, the smaller mi¬ 
crocosm to illustrate the larger issues. “At 
that moment I saw how the whole thing was 
going to lay out, and I raced out of the 
shower dripping wet, grabbed a notepad 
and wrote all this stuff down. The funny 
thing is that later 1 broke it down into index 
cards, one card per episode for 110 
episodes. You ask where was the inspira¬ 
tion, where’s the secret? It was in a black 
binder, a black notebook sitting on my desk 
in my office at B5, in plain view, for five 
years!” 

Is there a possibility that BABYLON 5 
could continue as a series of theatrical films? 
“To be honest, I'm not in a real hurry. My 
goal was to do five years of B5 and tell the 
story from beginning to end. The books can 


fill in the comers and stuff. But I 
ain't looking to make this into 
this massive deal. Perhaps five 
years from now I might do one, 
but 1 just want to sit for a while. 
I would want to have enough 
time to think about it; I wouldn’t 

wanl lo i ust *° * want 

to tell one hell of a story, and 
that requires a lot of thought. So 
t. I’m in no particular rush.” 

IL^ He’s asked about the end of 
■K the series. First-time director 

■I Straczynski said the entire crew 

Ijr j and cast were in tears, but even 
Hr here there's a funny story: Mira 
Hfefj Furlan (Delenn) didn't want to 
Still) deal with aging prosthetics, but 
Fllnn the emotion on the set was so 
ft is. intense (hat when Bruce Box- 
leitner grabbed her in a farewell 
hug, her makeup got squeezed, giving the 
effect of wrinkles! Joe didn’t tell her; he 
forbade anyone to tell her; so her makeup 
stayed that way and he got the shots he 
wanted. He says, “It was hard to shoot be¬ 
cause I was the only person who could not 
allow myself to fall apart, because if 1 did 
the whole thing was gonna go up.” 

He freely acknowledges (hat the end of 
the two shows has left a massive hole in his 
life, but he’s not just sitting waiting for the 
phone to ring. He just did a non-science fic¬ 
tion TV movie for CBS, and developed a 
series concept, THE WORLD ON FIRE, 
with Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, being 
shopped around for the Fall 2000 season. 
He also has a feature film in development, 
what he calls an “SF/action thing,” and 
“Rising Stars,” his 24-issuc maxi-series for 
Top Cow Comics is on-going. So even 
though he misses the universe he created 
and worked so hard in, he’s not bored. 

Looking back over five years of both 
success and heartbreak, how can he sum it 
up? He claimed “all I could do was make 
the best show 1 possibly could, and fight 
against the invidious, stupid interference we 
were getting.” □ 


117 








By Mike Lyons 

Ask Don Ernst. producer of 
FANTASIA 2(HH), if we can ex¬ 
pect other sequels to Disney ’s 
1940 masterpiece—FANTA¬ 
SIA'S 2002 or 2004, possi¬ 
bly—and his exuberance for 
the film (urns into a sheepish 
grin. “One day we talk about 
doing another and then the next 
day, we say, ‘Well, we're never 
going to do another one of 
these again."* he laughed. 

There’s a reason for such a 
mood of enthusiasm mingled 
with exhaustion. FAN IASI A 
2000 has been a long time 
coming (this is one of the few 
films in Hollywood that can, 
quite literally, brag that it has 
been six decades in the mak¬ 
ing). “I’ve been on the film 
since '91, when we first be¬ 
gan." noted Mendel Butoy, w ho 
directed two of FANTASIA 
2000's segments and also su¬ 
pervised production of the oth¬ 
er new sequences. “I ni actual¬ 
ly kind of numb to how people 
are going to react to it because 
it’s been so long for me. 

“No one ever imagined 
when we first began that a film 
like this would ever take 
place,” admitted Butoy. “We 
could only hope. It was in the 
back of our minds that, maybe, 
we could make films like they 
did back in the 'Golden Days* 
as they called it. The thrill of it 
is that people out there really 
do enjoy this art and I think we 
always had this sense that peo¬ 
ple would like this, if it was 
done right. We just felt, back 
then, that we’d never get that 
chance to make it happen. Now 
that it’s happened it’s terrific to 
see people respond to it the 
way that they have.” 

A sequel to one of the stu¬ 
dio’s most beloved treasures. 
FANTASIA 2000 has run a 
gauntlet of rumors about bud¬ 
get excesses and extended pro¬ 
duction time, and was eagerly 
awaited by many in and out¬ 
side the industry. 

When the film finally 



The IMAX animation 
sensation widens 
its release in July. 




Donald Duck checks ofl the animal couples entering Noah's Ark to the strains 
of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance," and gets reunited with his beloved Daisy. 


bowed in theatres on New 
Years Day, it was not only the 
perfect way for Disney to cap 
off the millennium, but also 
proved to be the artistic pinna¬ 
cle for the studio's decade-long 
animation Renaissance. 

Back in 1940, when FAN¬ 
TASIA was released, the film 
was a “misunderstood master¬ 
piece.” Walt had plans to re-is- 
sue the film, tike a concert 
(adding new “numbers” and 


deleting others) but lack of re¬ 
sponse, coupled with the ill 
timing of an animators strike 
and World War II, caused Walt 
to shelve these plans. 

It would be almost 30 more 
years before the world would 
rediscover FANTASIA. In the 
late sixties, audiences who 
were tripping (naturally and 
otherwise) to such films as 
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 
and YELLOW SUBMARINE. 


found similar thrills in Dis¬ 
ney’s re-issue of FANTASIA. 
In fact, many in this new audi¬ 
ence began to wonder if Dis¬ 
ney’s artists were on anything 
when they made the film. 
When asked about this, the late 
Art Babbit, one of the studio's 
animators who worked on 
FANTASIA, replied, “Yes, it’s 
true. I myself was addicted to 
Ex-Lax and Fcenamint.” 

Flash-forward again another 
20 years. It’s the late eighties, 
animation is on an upsw ing and 
creativity at the studio is mov¬ 
ing into prolific proportions. 
Wall's nephew, Roy E. Disney, 
vice chairman of the board and 
head of the animation depart¬ 
ment, sees this as the perfect 
opportunity to fulfill his Un¬ 
cle’s wishes for a FANTASIA 
“sequel.” 

Originally entitled FANTA¬ 
SIA ’97 (then FANTASIA 
CONTINUED) this would be a 
sequel unlike any other. FAN¬ 
TASIA 2000 took its time, with 
pieces slotted in as they were 
finished. Because of this, pro¬ 
duction has carried on longer 
than the traditional animated 
film, which has been pudding 
for the press. In 1997, The Los 
Angeles Times reported that 
FANTASIA 2000 was over¬ 
budget and would join WA- 
TERWORLD and TITANIC as 
one of the most expensive 
films ever made. 

The Disney studio has ve¬ 
hemently denied such reports. 
In fact. Roy E. Disney, who 
has carefully shepherded this 
labor of love from day one, 
said that this unique produc¬ 
tion schedule was a blessing, 
not a curse. “There was no ur¬ 
gency to the film. There was 
the ability to slide people off 
of one show and have them for 
a little while and then slide 
them into the next show, with¬ 
out everybody else missing a 
beat.” 

In addition to Disney, one of 
the first people on FANTASIA 
2000 was Mendel Butoy, who 
came to the production fresh 


118 
















Hendel Butoy on directing the film's aerial whale 
ballet and adapting Hans Christian Andersen. 


By Mike Lyons 

The inspiration that the 
artists working on FANTASIA 
2000 had been waiting for was 
right under their noses, almost 
literally. In the late thirties and 
early forties, the Disney studio 
began work on an omnibus film 
of Hans Christian Anderson sto¬ 
ries. Conceptual artwork created 
for this abandoned project lay 
dormant in the studio's Anima¬ 
tion Research Library, until 
1091, when Disney’s publishing 
branch decided to use some of 
the art created for “The Stead¬ 
fast Tin Soldier,” in a new chil¬ 
dren's book. 

One of those who bought the 
book was Hendel Butoy, who, 
fresh from co-directing THE 
RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, 
was charged with finding a story 
to accompany Dmitri Shostako¬ 
vich’s “Piano Concerto Number 
Two” for the new FANTASIA. 

“Roy [Disney) brought in the 
music and asked, ‘Is there any¬ 
thing worthwhile here?,’” re¬ 
membered Butoy. “I took the 
book out, as I was listening to the 


of Rome," Disney's artists have 
Ottorino Respighi's music as the 
backdrop for a whale ballet of 
sorts. Adding a dash of fantasy, 
whales arc summoned by a nova 
and not only burst from the wa¬ 
ter, they take flight, soaring into 
the night sky. 

“With just a verbal concept, 
we went to story sketch artists,” 
Butoy said, recalling how the se¬ 
quence was bom. “I said, ‘I don't 
know what we're going to do, but 
let’s just think about it. Let’s make 
it a fantasy of some kind.' One of 
our artists then went and drew 
what a child might see in the 
shapes of clouds in the sky. She 
drew one sketch that had a whale 
in the clouds. From that sketch we 
said, ‘Well, that’s an image that 
we’ve never seen before.’” 

Then, came the tricky part, 
how to introduce the idea of fly¬ 
ing whales, in this very naturalis¬ 
tic scene, without it being too 
jolting for the audience. “We 
played around with where it was 
that they should leave the water,” 
admitted Butoy. “When it was 
first storyboarded, we did it at the 
very beginning. Right now, the 


music, the structure of the music 
and the story seemed to go to¬ 
gether, so we decided to pull out 
all of the original sketches. We 
put the sketches together as a sto¬ 
ry reel and everybody looked at 
it. It was unanimous: we should 
do this. It was just kind of 
serendipitous that those sketches 
were done back then and now it’s 
come around. It's one of those 
happy coincidences.” 

“The Steadfast Tin Soldier” 


re-tells Anderson’s fable, which 
plays like a darker version of 
TOY STORY. The titular tin sol¬ 
dier finds himself falling in love 
with a beautiful ballerina doll, on¬ 
ly to be cast out of the children’s 
bedroom, where he experiences 
adventure after adventure in the 
“real” world. 

In addition to “Tin Soldier,” 
Butoy also directed another, 
completely different, segment of 
FANTASIA 2(XX). In “The Pines 


Above: Butoy's computer animated soaring whales, summoned by a 
supernova, set to the music of Ottorio Respighi's “Pines of Rome." Below: 
Andersen's “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” set to the music of Shostakovich. 


119 







way it is, the whale reaches up 
and then falls hack into the water. 
In early versions, the whale just 
reached up and kept going. But, 
as we kept playing with the story, 
we noticed that you got a much 
better sensation of flight when 
you first had the feeling of what it 
was like to be underwater. The 
whales should swim around and 
look natural in their own habitat, 
then come out of the water. There 
was a better contrast than to just 
go with them flying." 

Issues of flight were one 
thing, but the greater challenge 
for Butoy and his artists was that, 
in FANTASIA 2000, the charac¬ 
ters had to convey emotion with¬ 
out the benefit of dialogue. 

Said Butoy, **ln some cases, 
w hen I was talking with the ani¬ 
mators, we'd have to say, ‘Here’s 
what they would say if they 
could talk.’ We’d have to create 
our own dialogue just to be able 
to communicate what the charac¬ 
ter was trying to say. But this is 
animation in its purest form, be¬ 
cause making a drawing believ¬ 
able is all about making a charac¬ 
ter look like it's thinking. 

“If you notice, even in dia¬ 
logue animation, the times that 
you believe a character most is 
when the character stops mov¬ 
ing and just pauses for a bit, be¬ 
cause you get the sense that the 
character is thinking before he’s 
going to do something. In this 
case it really applies. You don’t 
have the ‘crutch* of dialogue." 

In addition to directing “Tin 
Soldier” and “Pines of Rome,” 
Butoy also supervised the entire 
production of FANTASIA 20(H). 
It's been a long, yet rewarding, 
process for the artist, who was 
one of the first aboard the pro¬ 
ject in 1991, □ 


Director Hendel Butoy, among the 
first to be brought onto the protect by 
Roy Edward Disney back in 1991. 




Brothers Paul and Gaetan Brizzi on 
directing the film’s fiery finale. 




French animators Gaetan (I) and Paul Brizzi, with 
maquettes of the sprite and elk they brought to life 
to personify the powerful music of igor Stravinsky. 


When audiences left 
movie theaters in No¬ 
vember of 1940, the last 
images they remember 
from FANTASIA were, 
to say the least, indelible. 

The “Night on Bald 
Mountain/Ave Maria” 
sequence was a jolting 
juxtaposition of life and 
death. From the evil in¬ 
carnate of the mountain¬ 
ous Chernabog, his flex¬ 
ing arms conjuring de¬ 
mons out of a swirling 
mist, to the ethereal sight 
of a wooded candlelight proces¬ 
sion, it was evident that Walt 
had picked the perfect crescen¬ 
do to his animated symphony. 

It is indeed one of the medi¬ 
um's most memorable moments 
and yet, Paul and Gaetan Brizzi 
had to learn to put it out of their 
mind. “I love ‘Night on Bald 
Mountain’ and ‘Avc Maria, they 
are my favorite pieces of the 
original FANTASIA. But, we 
didn’t want to look at them,” 
said Gaetan. Paul added, “Sub- 
liminally, it was there, but it 
was never used as a reference. It 
was just the opposite.” 

It’s not that the Brizzi broth¬ 
ers are animation heathens, 
quite the opposite, the two in¬ 
habit the medium, the way a 
fish inhabits a stream. But. Paul 
and Gaetan had been charged 
with directing, “The Firebird 
Suite,” a powerful statement on 
the forces of nature, which w ill 
serve as the finale for FANTA¬ 
SIA 2000. Many arc already 
calling it the film's most pow¬ 
erful moment. 

“The Firebird’ finale 
knocks people off their chairs, 
literally,” said Roy E. Disney. 
“We screened it, |early last] 
year at the Beverly Hilton ball¬ 
room for our merchandise 
branch [of the company]. I 
could see the audience quite 
clearly and, at one point, there 
were three women who jumped 
off of their chairs. It was aston¬ 


ishing!” 

Set to the music of Igor 
Stravinsky, “The Firebird Suite" 
opens with (he serene setting of 
snow covered woods. Slowly 
making his way through the 
woods is a dignified elk who 
awakens a shimmering Sprite 
from a nearby stream. 

The Sprite rises and passes 
through the woods, bringing 
life, in the form of springtime, 
back to the bleak, winter. Spot¬ 
ting an ominous hillside, the 
Sprite ventures toward it, only 
to awaken the wrath and fury of 
the Firebird. A mountainous, 
gelatinous bird composed of 
fire and spewing lava, the Fire¬ 
bird represents not only a vol¬ 
cano, but also nature’s destruc¬ 
tive forces. He is soon intent on 
destroying the Sprite and every¬ 
thing in his wake. 


“We didn’t want him to be 
the villain,” said Paul of 
the character. "We wanted 
to show that, sometimes, 
you have to clear things 
out and destroy, so that B 
we can have renewal. The 
Firebird wants to kill the 
Sprite, but only because 
this is his nature. We 
wanted to show him as 
the majesty of destruc¬ 
tion." Noted Gaetan, “It 
was a question of ‘Pure 
evil, or misunderstood ge¬ 
nius?' We didn’t want him 
to be some sort of Halloween 
joke. There’s something behind 
him. He’s revered. He is some¬ 
thing of a king, a monarch.” 

A fiery destructive monster 
who is not your typical Disney 
villain? Yes. This is actually fit¬ 
ting, because “The Firebird 
Suite” is not your typical Dis¬ 
ney animation. Lying just be¬ 
neath the surface of this finale 
arc echoes that will no doubt 
resonate deep with audiences. 
“Our goal was to create a visual 
poem, using the expressions of 
the characters to convey this," 
said Paul, adding, “It’s a tribute 
to nature and how it can be so 
beautiful and so powerful and 
dangerous and unpredictable. 

It’s really a message of hope, 
especially at the end of the mil¬ 
lennium.” 

It’s no question that the 


With death and rebirth as Its theme, the Biizzl’s feature a woodland sprite 
summoned by the stag, to represent the beauty and renewal of Springtime. 


120 






















The shimmering sprite Is awakened from a stream in the forest. The Brizzi's 
Independent studio was purchased by Disney to spearhead it's Paris facility. 


HENOEL BUTOV 

^We always had this sense that people would 
like this, if it was done light We felt we’d nev¬ 
er get the chance to make it happen. It’s terrific 
to see people respond the way they have V 


Brizzi brothers were the perfect 
choice to direct this weightier 
segment of FANTASIA 2000. 
The filmmakers seem to have a 
flair for the darker tone. It was 
their storyboard work for the 
opening segment of THE 
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE 
DAME that gave that film a 
gothic flavor. 

‘it is very important that you 
don't talk down to the audi¬ 
ence,” said Gaetan. “Animation 
is, but it is not only, kids stuff. 
It’s something more important, 
it can provide the audience with 
something different.” 

Paul and Gaetan Brizzi were 
already established animators, 
when Disney came calling for 
their expertise to help spearhead 
the studio’s Paris facility. In 
1989, the Television branch of 
Disney animation offered to 
buy the Brizzi’s independent 
studio. “Disney wanted us to 
come up with new ideas and 
new ways to do animation,” 
said Gaetan. “We wanted to 
push animation in other areas of 
art and into other areas of ex¬ 
pression.” 

The brothers were charged 
with administrative duties in 
France, but soon grew restless 
and came to Disney's Burbank 
studio to pursue more creativity. 
“We wanted to be part of this 
whole Renaissance movement,” 
added Paul. “There is a differ- 
encc in culture between Ameri¬ 
ca and Europe. We wanted to 
combine European ideas with 


American entertainment.” 

Twin brothers, who were 
born in Paris in 1951. the Brizzis 
share “common worlds,” as Gae¬ 
tan culls it, and both swear that 
there never once has been a trace 
of sibling rivalry. With their en¬ 
thusiasm for the medium some¬ 
times choked by wonderfully 
heavy French accents, the Brizzi’s 
arc so in tune, that they, at times, 
complete each others sentences. 

“We know cxacllv what the 
other can do.” said Paul. “By 
working together, we know 
what direction to go. It all 
comes very naturally. One of us 
is always complementing the 
work of the other.” 

The “Brothers Brizzi” view 
FANTASIA 2000 as the pro¬ 
ject that wilt help the medium 
take the giant leap forward 
that everyone has been wait¬ 
ing for. “1 hope that the new 
FANTASIA says to audiences, 
‘Here is a new way to look at 
animation,’” noted Gaetan. “I 
would like it to attract more 
adults to animation. I would 
love them to do a new FAN¬ 
TASIA every five years. I 
think this reminds people that 
this is an art form and maybe 
this movie could attract people 
to museums and to galleries. 
It’s almost our duty as artists 
to innovate, without being too 
intellectual or too personal, 
but instead, making the audi¬ 
ence more open. I think 
they’re ready to receive some¬ 
thing new.” Q 


from 1990’s THE RESCUERS 
DOWN UNDER (which he co¬ 
directed with POCAHONTAS’ 
Mike Gabriel). “As we were 
coming off of THE RES¬ 
CUERS, I had mentioned that 
if we ever do another FANTA¬ 
SIA, I’d love to be involved 
with it. in some way," remem¬ 
bered Butoy. “I figured it 
would never happen. Three 
months later, I get a phone call 
from Roy. He’s the one who 
eventually said, *1 think it’s 
time. I think that the artists 
here have proven themselves. 
They’ve done work that’s 

W 

shown that they can do it, we 
should just go ahead.”' 

Only one of the seven orig¬ 
inal segments returns for the 
sequel on the hallmark of 
FANTASIA, “The Sorcerer’s 
Apprentice.” Seven new seg¬ 
ments have been added for 
FANTASIA 2000. Butoy di¬ 
rects “Pines of Rome.” set to 
the music of Ottorino Res¬ 
pighi, the segment tells an 
ethereal tale of a supernova 
that allows whales to take 
flight in the night sky. Dmitri 
Shostakovich’s “Piano Con¬ 
certo Number Two” sets the 
stage for a re-telling of Hans 
Christian Anderson’s fable. 
“The Steadfast Tin Soldier.” 

Also doing double dutv on 
FANTASIA 2000 is Eric Gold¬ 
berg. the multi-talented anima¬ 
tor (ALADDIN’s Genie) and 


director (POCAHONTAS) 
helmed the segments, “Carni¬ 
val of the Animals” and “Rhap¬ 
sody in Blue.” “Carnival,” 
which uses Camille Saint- 
Saens music, tells the tale of a 
flamingo, who. thanks to his 
talents with a yo-yo, hreaks 
from the “mob mentality” of 
his peers. “Rhapsody” brings 
to life, animatedly, the art work 
of New York 'rimes caricaturist 
Al Hirshfeld, us it tells the tale 
of 1930's Manhattan, set to Ira 
Gershwin’s beautiful composi¬ 
tion. 

Donald Duck even gets his 
own showpiece in FANTASIA 
2000 (take that Mr. Mouse!). 
“Noah’s Duck,” reveals a Don¬ 
ald of “Biblical proportions,” 
as Donald plays Noah’s assis¬ 
tant and tries frantically to get 
two of every animal onto the 
arc. It’s all set to Sir Edward 
Elgar's “Pomp and Circum¬ 
stance.” directed by Frances 
Glcabus. 

One of the world’s most fa¬ 
mous pieces of music. “Bee¬ 
thoven’s Fifth,” (“Da-da-da- 
dum”) is also used in the new 
film, as the backdrop for a se¬ 
ries of abstract images, direct¬ 
ed by Pixote Hunt. Then, there 
is the film’s finale, “The Fire¬ 
bird Suite,” which tells the tale 
of nature’s powers of rejuvena¬ 
tion and destruction, directed 
by the brothers Paul and Gae- 
ton Brizzi, 


The opening's abstract imagery is set to the familiar strains of Beethoven's 
Fifth Symphony, pastel shades texture-mapped onto hand-drawn animation. 













Director Eric Goldberg on his comic carnival of 
flamingos and his stunning rendition of Gershwin. 



Set to Camille Saint-Seans "Le Carnaval des Animaux," Goldberg devised the 
comic anltics of a wacky flamingo with a yo-yo, a Hollywood high-concept. 


By Mike Lyons 

You can almost hear the 
high-concept, Molly wood pitch: 
“It's a story of breaking free 
from the dictates of society. It’s 
a tale of individuality. It’s 
about doing the unexpected. 
Oh, yeah, and it stars flamin¬ 
gos.” 

It doesn't sound like your 
usual, formulaic story, w hich is 
w hy it fits perfectly with FAN¬ 
TASIA 2000. In one of the 
film’s seven new segments, set 
to the music of Camille Saint- 
Saens’ “Carnival of the Ani¬ 
mals,” a flamingo gets ahold of 
a yo-yo, much to the chagrin of 
his snobbish peers (dubbed “the 
snotty six” by the filmmakers) 
who do everything possible to 
quash the individuality of this 
yo-yo-ing rebel. 

The concept for the fast- 
paced segment came from Joe 
Grant, a 91-year-old artist, one 
of the studio's legends, who 
worked on the first FANTASIA 
and still works at Disney today, 
contributing conceptual art and 
story ideas. “I credit Joe Grant 
with the high concept. Various 
people had tried doing different 
versions of that idea,” said mul¬ 


ti-talented trie Goldberg (co¬ 
director of POCAHONTAS, an¬ 
imator of the Genie and HER¬ 
CULES’ Phil) who directs the 
segment. 

Original versions had an os¬ 
trich getting hold of a yo-yo, 
which didn't please Goldberg, 
mainly because he felt it bore 
too strong a resemblance to one 
of FANTASIA’S original seg¬ 
ments, “Dance of the Hours.” 

“I needed a reason for [the 
flamingo} to have a yo-yo,” not¬ 
ed Goldberg. “Originally, he 


just finds it and all of the other 
flamingos chase him. not unlike 
the ostriches chasing (he one 
with the grapes in ‘Dance of the 
Hours.’ I felt that it was too 
similar to ‘ Dance of the Hours,’ 
so I decided to change the dy¬ 
namic and just make him the 
goofball that just doesn't want 
to get in line. He just wants to 
do his yo-yo tricks and be left 
alone, thank you very much. Of 
course, the others don’t like that 
because they have a mob men¬ 
tality.” 

Goldberg, who also animat¬ 
ed much of the segment, in ad¬ 
dition to directing it. found a 
tremendous amount of inspira¬ 
tion for the look of “Carnival,” 
from his wife, Susan, also a 
Disney artist. As art director for 
the segment, Susan arranged for 
a very distinct palette. “I call it 
the Hawaiian shirt take,” she 
said. “With today’s technology, 
we have a tendency to make 
colors very muted. Flamingos 
are out there, so I figured we 
would go for the extreme.” 

“It's not done the traditional 
way,” added Eric. “The entire 


piece, flamingos, backgrounds 
—is all hand water-colored. It 
gives it a softer, rendered look 
that you normally don’t get with 
an outline around (he character, 
or tone matte with a shadow.” 
Eric and his crew traveled to the 
San Diego and LA Zoo to study 
the anatomy and the walk of 
flamingos. Also studied were 
the movements of another film¬ 
maker at the studio, Mike 
Gabriel, a yo-yo aficionado, 
who had co-directed POCA¬ 
HONTAS with Goldberg. 

Still, the biggest challenge 
with “Carnival” was matching 
the fast-paced movements of 
the “snotty six” with the fast- 
paced notes of (he music. 

“Because there are six of 
them and because they alt do 
the same thing, you not only 
have to time the animation 
right, but you have to space it 
the right way, so that one head 
doesn't start repeating.” 

Far from Flamingos, who 
dance with Tex Avery-comic 
precision, is the island of Man¬ 
hattan in the I930’s. For FAN¬ 
TASIA 2000, Eric and Susan 
Goldherg have brought both of 
these worlds to life. 

In the early nineties, during 
production on AI^ADDIN, Eric, 
a devoted fan of the work of 
famed New York Times carica¬ 
turist Al Hirshfeld. had used the 
artist’s style as the blueprint for 
the curling, “S”-shape design of 
the film’s Genic. “His work is 
eminently animatable," said Er¬ 
ic of Hirshfeld. “What he gets 
into a still drawing are the 
things that we strive for in ani¬ 
mation. His work has elegance, 
simplicity and suppleness of 
line.” 

After ALADDIN opened, 
Eric approached both Hirshfeld 
and Disney about setting the 


Original FANTASIA atoryman Joe Grant, now 91, came up with the idea of 
celebratring individuality, lushly rendered in pastel watercolor animation. 
















Goldberg also directed the film's most outstanding segment. George 
Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue” set to the cartoon imagery of Al Hirschfeld. 


Hirshfcld style against Ira 
Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in 
Blue.” He had Hirshfeld’s 
blessing, but had a difficult time 
selling the studio on the idea. 

During some “down time,” 
after production on “Carnival” 
wrapped, Eric storyboarded the 
“Rhapsody” sequence, hoping 
to pitch it to Disney as a short 
subject. The project was given 
a go-ahead by Feature Anima¬ 
tion President, Thomas Schu¬ 
macher. Then, a month into 
production on “Rhapsody," 
Rov E. Disnev noticed that 
FANTASIA 2000 needed a 
boost. 

“There were parts of it that 
were dragging.” admitted Eric. 
"Roy (Disney| turned to me. af¬ 
ter a screening and said, ‘You 
think “Rhapsody” is going to be 
done in time?* So, all of a sud¬ 
den, it became a FANTASIA 
piece.” 

Set in I930*s Manhattan, the 
film centers on four characters: 
Duke, a construction worker, 
who dreams of being a jazz mu¬ 
sician; Joe, a perpetually out- 
of-work loner; fun-loving John 
(caricatured after noted anima¬ 
tion historian John Culhane), 
who tries to get the most out 
of life, despite his stuffy so¬ 
cialite wife; and a little girl 
(based on the Goldbergs* 
daughter, Rachel) who gets 
dragged around the city by a 
zealous nanny. 

Within this story, look for 
all the familiar Hirshfcld 
touches to be brought to life in 
animation—bold, continuous 
lines, famous caricatured 
cameos (including one of Hir¬ 
shfcld himself) and. yes, even 
the famed, hidden “Nina's” (a 
name the artist always inserts 
subliminally into his draw¬ 


ings—it*s become his trade¬ 
mark). 

Once again. Goldberg direct¬ 
ed the segment, with Susan 
working out the color palette as 
art director. “I went from the 
warm colors of the tropics to the 
‘cools’ of New York,” noted Su¬ 
san. “Every color in ‘Rhapsody’ 
has a certain amount of blue in 
it. My intention was to see how 
far I could take a limited palette 
and make it look like we’re us¬ 
ing a very vast palette.” In addi¬ 
tion. Susan also assigned cer¬ 
tain colors to each character, 
which reflects their personali¬ 
ties (for example: Rachel is a 
“warm” pink and John is a 
“heartfelt” purple) 

More than just style, 
“Rhapsody,” like all the seg¬ 
ments in FANTASIA 2000, has 
a message. “It’s about every¬ 
body chasing their dream and 
realizing their dream,” noted 
Eric. 

For the Goldbergs, who 
have been married almost 
twenty years and working to¬ 
gether for almost as long, at 
their own studio in London and 
now at Disney, FANTASIA 
2000 represents what they con¬ 
sider a pinnacle of artistic free¬ 
dom. “We got something on the 
screen that really feels like our 
vision,” said Eric. “And, we 
did it with the studio's bless¬ 
ing.” 

“This was a project that no 
one wanted to work on at first,” 
remembered Susan. “As it gath¬ 
ered momentum, people began 
to realize that this was going to 
be a project like the first FAN¬ 
TASIA. I hope that this film 
serves as a ‘marker’ and that the 
next generation will be able to 
build another FANTASI A on 
top of this one.” 


ROY E. DISNEY 

“They’ll all say, ‘How dare you mess with a mas¬ 
terpiece?’ and all the other things they accused 
the first film of. When you see the film it’s like lis¬ 
tening to the music through entirely new ears.” 


Noted Paul Brizzi. “I want 
the audience to leave FANTA¬ 
SIA with (lie feeling that they 
have taken a journey into this 
world of animation, that they 
have gone into the imagination 
of the artist. They should feel 
as if they have just gone into 
an eclectic world of ideas, of 
art, of expression. It should all 
feel like a beautiful dream that 
you don't want to wake up 
from." 

Of course, there are those 
members of both music and an- 
imation elite who will call 
FANTASIA 2000 heresy. When 
the original FANTASIA de¬ 
buted. many in the realm of 
classical music dismissed the 
film. Igor Stravinsky whose 
"Right of Spring" was actually 
used in the original (and whose 
“Firebird” is in the new film), 
dismissed the original FANTA¬ 
SIA as, what lie called, “an un¬ 
resisting imbecility." 

Those were the nascent days 
of animation, however, when it 
was still considered more “car¬ 
toon" and less of an art form. It 
was also well before FANTA¬ 
SIA had risen to masterpiece 
proportions. Now, many that 
feel the original shouldn't have 
been tampered with arc ready 
to pounce. “We're going to 
have to endure the critics," ad¬ 
mitted Roy Disney. “They're 
all going to say, ‘How dare you 
mess with a masterpiece?* and 
alt of the other things that they 
accused the first film of. But, 
when you sec the film, it’s like 
listening to the music through 
entirely new ears,” 

“All we’re doing is what 
Walt would have done had cir¬ 
cumstances been different,” 
added producer Ernst. “So, I 
honestly don’t feel that I have 
to defend it. because this is 
something that Walt wanted to 
do originally.” 

In FANTASIA, noted musi¬ 
cologist Deems Taylor served 
as on-screen host and M.C., of 
sorts. In FAN TASIA 2000, the 


filmmakers have decided to use 
a variety of names. Among the 
famous laces introducing the 
musical segments during the 
film’s live-action “interstitial" 
sequences are James Earl 
Junes, Steve Martin. Penn and 
Teller and Bette Midler. Direct¬ 
ing these sequences is Don 
Hahn, most famous for produc¬ 
ing at Disney (BEAUTY AND 
THE BEAST, THE LION 
KING). 

More pressing than who 
would be the right “name" to 
introduce each segment, was 
which music to choose for this 
closely watched sequel. Since 
the original FANTASIA, music 
has exploded into areas of 
rock, punk, rap and alternative, 
but the filmmakers behind the 
sequel are keeping things de¬ 
cidedly classical, for now. 

“We would listen to music 
for about two hours at a time,” 
said Buloy, “which is about as 
long as you can take, just sit 
back and imagine. When some¬ 
thing would move you, you 
would say, ‘Hey that was a 

Director Eric Goldberg with wife and 
art director Susan Goldberg, savoring 

their pinnacle of artist freedom. 



123 

































Walt's nephew on realizing a cherished 
dream in producing the new sequel. 


When Roy E. Disney 
was a boy, he used to listen 
closely to the sound of his 
father's car pulling up to the 
house each evening. If the 
car “slammed,” into the dri¬ 
veway, young Roy knew 
that dad and Uncle Walt had 
argued that day and he 
would quickly head for an¬ 
other room. Never did that 
young boy think that some 
day he would be a vital 
player in that “family busi¬ 
ness” that bears his name. 
Starting his career in 1954, 
as an assistant film editor 
on the TRUE-LIFE AD¬ 
VENTURE documentaries, 
he now serves as vice chair¬ 
man of the board and head 
of the animation depart¬ 
ment. 

It's safe to say that, when 
it comes to the philosophy, 
the history and the mystery of 
Disney there is no “Cast Mem¬ 
ber” currently working at the 
studio that has seen it from 
more perspectives than Roy E. 
Disney. After all, he is the 
nephew of Walt himself, and 
son of Roy O. Disney, the fi¬ 
nancially savvy brother, who 
was the practical side of Walt's 
creativity. 

“Growing up around Walt 
and my father, anything was 
possible,” said Disney. “That’s 
the thing that has continued, 
especially since Michael [Eis¬ 
ner] and Frank [Wells) came 
aboard. There’s that sense that 
possibilities are endless, so 
nothing surprises you." 

When Michael Eisner 
joined Disney as CEO in 1984, 
he realized that Roy was the 
best brain to pick when it came 
to understanding the company. 
Roy Disney had just taken 
over the animation department 
and wanted to expand this 
foundering niche of the com¬ 
pany that had once been its 
cornerstone. During one of 
Disney and Eisner's weekly 



Disney, In charge of the studio’s feature 
animation, with a maquette of star Donald 
Duck, completing Wait's grand design. 


lunches, the subject of doing a 
sequel to FANTASIA came up. 
“I saw a look in Michael's eye 
when I told him about FAN¬ 
TASIA and he said, 'Yeah, 
that’s kind of an interesting 
idea,’’’remembered Disney. 
“So, I tucked away his reaction 
and thought, ‘That was inter¬ 
esting, I can’t imagine previ¬ 
ous administrations reacting 
that way.'” 

Roy Disney was nine years 
old when he first saw what 
many consider his uncle's 
greatest artistic achievement. 
“I thought it was exciting, 
there were a lot of things hap¬ 
pening all the time,” said Dis¬ 
ney of FANTASIA. “I also 
loved it because 1 knew that it 
was conceived as an endless 
idea. You could keep reinvent¬ 
ing it and going back to it.” 

That indeed was Walt’s in¬ 
tent for FANTASIA when it 
bowed in 1940, The film was 
to return to theatres, from 
time-to-time, with new seg¬ 
ments added and older ones 
deleted. Due to circumstances 
beyond Walt's control (most 


notably an animators, strike 
and World War II) his plans 
for FANTASIA never came 
to fruition. But, that nine- 
year-old nephew never for¬ 
got. 

In 1991, Roy Disney 
gave his reluctant blessing 
to release FANTASIA on 
home video, where it went 
on to sell eight million 
copies worldwide. He re¬ 
membered, “I wrote Michael 
a little note and said, ‘Not 
only should we do the sec¬ 
ond FANTASIA, but now 
we can afford it!”' And so, 
that same year, Walt's wish 
was fulfilled, as production 
began on another FANTA¬ 
SIA. 

Roy Disney's labor of 
love now caps off an incredi¬ 
ble animation resurgence at 
the studio. When considering 
why animation not only came 
back, but came back with a 
vengeance, Disney gives full 
credit to the artists at the studio, 
for expanding boundaries, and 
to audiences, as well. “Maybe 
the public wanted it to happen, 
in a way. I think, maybe, they 
missed it. There was a long pe¬ 
riod there where it was not as 
good as it could have been. The 
really bad, cheap stuff in TV 
animation made a contribution 
to that. There was a tong period 
there when animation was al¬ 
most a dirty word. LITTLE 
MERMAID and, even before 
that, GREAT MOUSE DETEC¬ 
TIVE, ROGER RABBIT and 
OLIVER AND COMPANY, 
helped change things.” 

And what's it been like to 
have been a part of helping the 
“family business” rise Phoe¬ 
nix-like from the ashes? “It’s 
just been a hell of a ride,” said 
Disney with an amazed smile. 
“I keep telling people, ‘1 don't 
know why they pay me to do 
what 1 do, it's just too much 
fun.’” 

By Mike Lyons 


great piece maybe we should 
pursue that.”’ 

Now, a decade later, those 
notes that filled the air have 
been imagined visually and 
gone out before the world un¬ 
like any film before. FANTA¬ 
SIA 2000 had its world pre¬ 
miere at New York’s Carnegie 
Hall on December 17th, with 
a live orchestra, under the 
conduction of renowned mae¬ 
stro James Levine, who also 
conducted the music for the 
film. 

After New York. FANTA¬ 
SIA 2000 embarked on a two- 
week world tour that included 
“concert screenings” in Lon¬ 
don, Paris, Tokyo and Pasade¬ 
na, where the film came home 
for a special New Year’s Eve 
gala. 

Then, on New Year’s Day, 
FANTASIA 2000 opened for a 
four-month engagement at 
I MAX theaters throughout the 
world (making it the first fea¬ 
ture-length-animated film in 
this format). After this, FAN¬ 


TASIA 2000 takes a brief hia¬ 
tus and will then rollout to area 
theaters in July. So, if you 
haven’t yet seen it in IMAX, 
hurry. 

“This isn't even close to the 
normal filmmaking experi¬ 
ence," said Ernst. “We’re 
telling little stories and we try 
to have a flow. So, it’s a com¬ 
pletely different experience. 
There was a smaller group of 
people working on this, so that 
the work comes through more 
slowly. It was day to day work, 
but it was excit- 

* -tf 

mg. 

“Each director 
probably has 
thoughts on their 
own sequences,” 
noted Butoy. "But. 
w hat gives me the 
greatest thrill is 
when people react 
to the different im¬ 
agery that’s on the screen the ex¬ 
act same way that I reacted to it 
when 1 first imagined it. because 
there’s some kind of connection 
there. You’re able to make some¬ 
one go through the same emo¬ 
tion and same sense of feelings. 
My hope is that anyone who 
watches this film goes through 
the same spectrum of emotion 
and excitement and thrill that we 
had coming up with the ideas 
and the images.” 



Producer 
Don Ernst 


124 






A testament to the power 
of the imagination , and 
a soaring achievement. 



Director Eric Goldberg's "Rhapsody In Blue,” a short incorporated into the final 
mix that proves to be one of the Disney Studio's shining moments. 


By Mike Lyons 

When the origins] FANTA¬ 
SIA opened on November 13. 
1940, critics didn’t know how 
to react to it. It was given luke- 
warm reviews and treated as a 
disappointment for Wall Dis¬ 
ney. It would take almost anoth¬ 
er 30 years before the film 
would be re-discovered. 

When FANTASIA 2000 
opened on January 1. 2000, crit¬ 
ics didn't know r how to react to 
it. It was given lukewarm re¬ 
views and treated as a disap¬ 
pointment for the Walt Disney 
Studios. Let’s hope audiences 
don’t wait another 30 years to 
discover this one. 

FANTASIA 2000 rolls out 
into area theaters this July, after 
a four-month engagement at 
IMAX theatres. If you missed it 
on the BIG screen, make sure 
you don’t miss it on the, well, 
on the somewhat smaller big 
screen. With a respectful tip of 
the hat to the original, FANTA- 
SIA 2000 looks* sounds and 
feels like a perfect, logical ex¬ 
tension of Walt Disney’s origi¬ 
nal vanguard film. 

The new FANTASIA opens 
with careful precision, unveil¬ 
ing a sequence set to one of mu¬ 
sic’s most famous movements, 
“Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.” 
The segment’s director, Pixote 
Hunt, has imagined the music 
as a battle between good and 
evil (with the stakes raised for 
the latter) played out not by 
characters, but by surrealistic, 
triangular images. It’s well con¬ 
ceived and kinetic in move¬ 
ment, but way too short. 

In Ottorino Respighiss* 
“Pines of Rome,” we’re shown 
a herd of whales who, thanks to 
the explosion of a supernova, 
are able to take flight. “Pines” is 
a beautifully directed scene by 
Hcndcl Buloy, who brings to it 
the same dizzying sense of scale 


and feel for naturalistic move¬ 
ment that was on display in his 
RESCUERS DOWN UNDER 
(clouds flow under the whales 
like breaking waves, breaking 
waves make their way into the 
sky like clouds). 

Butoy also directed “Shos¬ 
takovich’s Piano Concerto No. 
2,” which has been used as the 
backdrop for a re-telling of Hans 
Christian Anderson’s “Steadfast 
Tin Soldier,” in which a toy sol¬ 
dier must fend off an evil jack- 
in-thc box for the affections of a 
ballerina doll. With a distinctly 
delicate touch that’s light-years 
from the sweeping vistas of 
“Pines of Rome,” Butoy imbues 
“Tin Soldier," with the comfort¬ 
able warmth of Disney’s classic 
fairy-tales. 

The studio has included one 
of the original FANTASIA’S hull- 
marks. “The Sorcerer’s Appren¬ 


tice,” starring Mickey Mouse 
(neither lime, nor the expanse of 
the IMAX screen, has removed 
the luster from Mickey's pointed 
blue hat). As a counterpoint, the 
new FANTASIA features a vehi¬ 
cle for Donald Duck, set to the 
familiar strains of “Pomp and 
Circumstance.” 

In the sequence, Donald is 
Noah’s assistant, attempting to 
get all of the animals on the Ark, 
while trying to locate his lost 
love, Daisy. The segment is a 
beautiful example of character 
animation, in the way it retains all 
of Donald's personality in pan¬ 
tomime. without having the Duck 
mutter one of his incomprehensi¬ 
ble “quackings.” “Pomp" also 
features a wonderful, building 
crescendo of a finish that makes 
one wonder why the filmmakers 
didn't choose it as the finale. 

Instead, FANTASIA 2000 


culminates with the somber 
“Firebird Suite,” an animated 
blow to the solar plexus. Direct¬ 
ed by Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, 
Stravinsky’s music is used as a 
backdrop for a battle between 
the sprite of spring and the de¬ 
structive power of a volcano 
(taking the shape of a giant fire¬ 
bird, dripping lava like a melt¬ 
ing Phoenix). I’hc sequence 
ends FANTASIA 2000 on a qui¬ 
et, reflective note. 

Despite its somber ending, 
what audiences may remember 
most from the new FANTASIA 
2000 are the film’s two more 
fast-paced moments, both di¬ 
rected by Eric Goldberg. One, 
set to “Carnival of the Ani¬ 
mals," shows us what happens 
when a flamingo gets hold of a 
yo-yo, in a sequence so slick 
and quick, it's as if Goldberg 
has channeled the frenetic pow¬ 
er of the late Tex Avery. 

Goldberg is also responsible 
for what may not only be the 
best sequence in FANTASIA 
2000, but one of the Disney’s 
studio’s shining moments, 
“Rhapsody in Blue.” The se¬ 
quence tells the tale of a group 
of characters, living in Manhat¬ 
tan during the Depression. 
With a style that’s inspired by 
the caricaturist A1 Hirschfcld, 
“Rhapsody” has a feel that’s 
distinctly Disney and yet alto¬ 
gether something its own, merg¬ 
ing the sparseness of a UPA stu¬ 
dio cartoon, the pace of Warner 
Bros’ Looney Tunes and the 
heart and humor of silent films, 
Gershwin’s music is realized so 
perfectly that it will be difficult 
to ever listen to it again without 
having the images, the move¬ 
ment, the emotions and the col¬ 
or of “Rhapsody in Blue” race 
through your brain. “Rhapsody" 
shows, in spades, what both 
FANTASIAS were intended to 
be: testaments to the power of 
the imagination. 


125 














Elicits few screams from an audience that prefers to 
react mostly with sly cackles and glib backtalk. 



Neve Campbell and David Arquette In SCREAM 3, an ironic ending—or Is It? 


By Thomas Doherty 

Trilogy or sequel? Thai is the 
self reflexive question posetl from 
beyond the grave on videotape by 
Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), 
the media-centric wisecracker 
from SCREAM and SCREAM 2, 
regarding the likely narrative 
machinations and sequence of vic¬ 
tims for SCREAM 3. Randy is, or 
was, an expert in the conventions 
and cliches of the genre, deter¬ 
mined never to be bushwhacked 
by a plot twist and to keep one step 
ahead of the serial kilter MO, 
though, alas for him, no! far 
enough ahead in SCREAM 2. 

More wheels within wheels 
than squeals within squeals. 
SCREAM 3 ladles out the irony 
thicker than the fake blood. 

Unlike THE SIXTH SENSE 
and THE BLAIR WITCH PRO¬ 
JECT. SCREAM distances the 
spectator from the lethal action in 
a blur of postmodern banter and 
frame-breaking asides that would 
leave Bcrtold Brecht dizzy. No 
one actually screams watching 
the SCREAM films; the preferred 
reactions arc sly cackles and glib 
backtalk. Thus, when MTV alum 
Jenny McCarthy, as female vic¬ 
tim #2, makes a bonehead refer¬ 
ence to the shower scene in VER¬ 
TIGO, the guy behind me mut¬ 
tered, on cue, “PSYCHO, you 
bimbo.” 

By now, director Wes Craven 
and screenwriter Kevin William¬ 
son’s white-masked, black-robed, 
raspy-voiced knife thrower is an 
old hud, a fair friend well met. The 
guy under the mask changes but 
his wry way with a nubile teenager 
in a towel remains consistent. In 
his latest and allegedly last outing, 
he (or she) stalks the soundstages 
and slices the dramatis persona of 
STAB 3, a motion picture version 
of the infamous West boro murders 
choreographed so lovingly in 
SCREAM and SCREAM 2. 

With the witty scripter Wil¬ 
liamson having bowed out of the 
third outing to direct the lackluster 
TEACHING MRS. TINGLE. Cra¬ 
ven passed the ginsu knives to 


Ehren Kruger. Like Williamson, 
Kruger knows that an adolescent 
audience reared on video rentals 
and cable repeat viewings will be 
wise to the most arcane film refer¬ 
ences; to the previous SCREAMs. 
to their horror kindred, to wrap¬ 
around extratextual information. 
(The director of STAB 3 claims 
only to want to make a good fami¬ 
ly melodrama. Perhaps something 
like MUSIC OE THE HEART?) 

As always, Craven’s method is 
to populate the proceedings with 
young and attractive performers 
and then kill them. If his films were 
more realistic, audiences might 
even feel pangs of regret as princi¬ 
ples and expendables alike go un¬ 
der the blade in random order, of¬ 
ten departing from the usual hierar¬ 
chy in the victim sweepstakes. 

Returning from the first two in¬ 
stallments are the sole survivors: 
Cotton Weary (Licv Schriber), in a 
brief prelude; the decent, under¬ 
achieving local cop Dewey Riley 
(David Arquette), now technical 
advisor on STAB 3; ruthless 
tabloid hack Gale Weathers 
(Courteney Cox Arquette), still 
coveting that Pulitzer Prize (Ad¬ 
vice to journalism students: 
“Break the rules. Stop at noth¬ 
ing.”), and, of course, the prime 
object of pursuit, the luscious Sid¬ 
ney Prescott (Neve Campbell). 


Evincing an understandable ob¬ 
session with home security sys¬ 
tems, Sidney hides in seclusion, 
working as a counselor on a 
women's crisis hotline. Anyone 
surprised when that hoarse tele¬ 
phone voice breaks in to ask her 
w hat her favorite movie is has ob¬ 
viously bought a ticket to MANS¬ 
FIELD PARK and wandered in to 
the wrong venue. 

The double plot structure dic¬ 
tates that all the SCREAM char¬ 
acters have on-screen doppel- 
gangers, namely the actors who 
play them in STAB 3. No wonder 
Cox-Arquettc as Gale registers 
bemusement when Dewey, played 
by her real-life, plain-as-a-fencc- 
post husband, is impersonated by 
the devilishly handsome Matt 
Kecslar. And the killer? Is he (or 
she) the sleazy Hollywood pro¬ 
ducer (Lance Henrikscn)? The 
ambitious young director (Scott 
Foley)? The handsome homicide 
detective (Patrick Dempsey)? Or 
perhaps the seemingly harmless 
actress playing Sidney? 

Like it matters: the SCREAMs 
arc fueled by slash-and-chasc 
chaos, not dramatic coherence. 
Sad to report, the late Randy 
Meeks would be contemptuous of 
the predictable shenanigans on 
stage in either SCREAM 3 or 
STAB 3: hands lunge through win¬ 


dows. dead bodies never seem to 
stay put. and a trip to the basement 
is a Bad Idea. Despite screenwriter 
Kruger’s multilevel genre smarts 
(“I’ve got to get a new agent," 
sighs Jenny McCarthy, bemoaning 
her role as a 35-year-old actress 
playing a 21-year-old) and droll 
dialogue (“He was making a 
movie called STAB. He was 
stabbed,” deadpans a cop.), the di¬ 
alogue creaks as much as it crack¬ 
les. Adding to the surfeit of in¬ 
jokes and distancing devices is a 
parade of too cute cameos: Roger 
Corman as a studio executive, Car¬ 
rie Fisher as a washed-up actress 
once up for (he role of Princess 
Lcia in STAR WARS, and a 
crowd-pleasing glimpse of Kevin 
Smith and Jason Mewcs in their 
Silent Bob and Jay mode. 

SCREAM 3 boasts one real 
ace in the shape of indie princess 
Parker Posey as the screen ver¬ 
sion of Gale in STAB 3. Playing a 
bubbleheadcd neurotic. Posey is 
hilarious. She and Cox-Arquettc 
hiss out some nice catty insults 
over who is the better reporter, 
the imitation or the genuine item. 

By the time the killer's mask 
comes off to spout a mouthful of 
highly annoying exposition, 
SCREAM 3 has hushed to a whis¬ 
per. At the end credits, one will be 
left pondering only the question of 
genre closure. Trilogy or sequel? 
Craven claims to have closed out 
(he series, but when (he third install¬ 
ment of a horror franchise opens to 
a S3S million weekend, perhaps he 
was just being ironic. 


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126 
















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Volume 2 Number 1 

Our look at WES CRA¬ 
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A very comprehensive 
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Volume 27 Number 1 

A detailed opcode guide 
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Issue-length stones on 
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Volume 2 Number 2 

We cover the filming 
of INTERVIEW WITH 
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look at modern-day vam¬ 
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SHELLEY’S FRANK¬ 
ENSTEIN. $6.00 


Volume 25 Number 3 
2001 COVER 

2001 : Douglas Trum¬ 
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Volume 10 Number 2 

The production of 
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including interviews with 
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The complete behind- 
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The making of STAR 
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Movie poster artists 
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THE BLACK HOLE, 
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on the original. Also Ultra- 
Asian action heroes and 
Hong Kong horrors. $8.00 



CDCFAMTASTIOUE 






Volume 10 Number 3 

Making CLASH OF 
THE TITANS,with 
storyboards, behind-the- 
scenes shots, early 
animation tests, color 
compsites & more. 

$ 8.00 


Volume 21 Number 3 

A retrospective look at 
the making of the hit soap 
opera. DARK SHADOWS, 
plus mfo on ’90s rein¬ 
carnation. Also the re¬ 
making of NIGHT OF THE 
UVING DEAD. $8.00 


Volume 10 Number 4 

David Cronenberg 
career article: a look at 
this audacious director 
and the shockers that 
made him famous. Also, 
SUPERMAN and 
CONAN. $8.00 


Volume 23 Number 2/3 
STAR TREK: THE 
NEXT GENERATION, 
season 5, from special 
effects to makeup to 
production design. 
Includes episode guide. 
$20.00 


AFQ *4 

BATMAN BEYOND: 
the follow-up to the best 
amme series on U.S. TV. 
The high and low points 
of the first season, with 
revamped hero and 
rogues’ gallery. $8.00 


ORDER TOLL FREE BY PHONE, 1-800-798-6515 WITH MASTERCARD OR VISA 

Or mail your order with check or money order in USA funds only to P.O. Box 270* Oak Park IL 60303